Constitutional Law Commons^™

Imperfect Death Penalty Not Acceptable, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Constitutionalizing Kwik-E-Mart, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Establishing A Federal Constitutional Right To A Healthy Environment In Us And In Our Posterity, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Deference In The Judicial Resolution Of Intrachurch Disputes: The Lesser Of Two Constitutional Evils, Nathan C. Belzer

St. Thomas Law Review

In the course of its century long struggle to balance the ideals of the Free Exercise and Establishment clauses with the need for judicial intervention in the resolution of intrachurch disputes, the Supreme Court has fashioned two jurisprudential approaches. The deference approach, first enunciated by the court in Watson v. Jones and given modern approval in Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich, mandates that civil courts defer to the result reached by the highest authority within the church or religious association in which the dispute arose. 9 In contrast, the neutral principles approach, first suggested in Presbyterian Church v. Hull …

Commentary - Co-Opting Compassion: The Federal Victim's Rights Amendment, Lynne Henderson

St. Thomas Law Review

This Commentary will explore some of the jurisprudential and practical issues by examining the nature of victims' rights and victimization. After a brief introduction to the history of victim's rights amendments in the United States, this Commentary will explore the images in the rhetoric that lead to unreflective support for victims' rights, then turn to images of justice and arguments for a particular kind of victims' rights, together with a critique of that vision. Finally, this Commentary suggests some alternative approaches and programs that promise to be more helpful to victims of crime than any constitutional amendment would be.

All Or Nothing, Or Maybe Cooperation: Attorney General Power, Conduct, And Judgment In Relation To The Work Of An Independent Counsel, John Q. Barrett

Faculty Publications

This Article considers the allocation of power under the independent counsel law between the Attorney General along with the Department of Justice and the independent counsel whose appointment the Attorney General has triggered. Although the law explicitly transfers much of an Attorney General's lawful power to an independent counsel, it does not go far enough in reallocating that power. Thus, it leaves a fundamental gap between what the current statute purports independent counsel to be and what it actually empowers independent counsel to accomplish. After an introduction in Part I, Part II of this article reviews the current legal provisions, …

Reconciliation And The Fiscal Constitution: The Anatomy Of The 1995-96 Budget "Train Wreck", Anita S. Krishnakumar

Faculty Publications

Congress originally conceived of the budget reconciliation process as a minor fallback mechanism for bringing one year's tax and spending policy in line with overall budget targets. Reconciliation has since become central to congressional efforts to reduce the federal budget deficit. This Note argues, however, that reconciliation is limited in its capacity to impel significant budgetary reform. The author demonstrates how, in 1995-96, reconciliation caused repeated breakdowns in governmental budget-making, undermining the entire budget process. The author concludes that the legal, institutional, and political constraints inherent in the reconciliation process will continue to constitute powerful obstacles to congressional efforts to …

Deciding The Stop And Frisk Cases: A Look Inside The Supreme Court's Conference, John Q. Barrett

Faculty Publications

In our system of constitutional decision-making, the Supreme Court makes law as an institution in its formal written opinions. The Court and its individual members make their official legal marks in the printed pages of the United States Reports. In June 1968, in Terry v. Ohio and Sibron v. New York, the two decisions that approved the constitutionality under the Fourth Amendment of police stop and frisk practices, the Court filled many official pages with rich discussion. Over the ensuing thirty years, these Court and individual opinions have shaped the course of constitutional analysis in our courts and guided the …

The Street Locations: Downtown Cleveland, October 31, 1963, John Q. Barrett

Faculty Publications

This appendix to Deciding the Stop and Frisk Cases: A Look Inside the Supreme Court’s Conference, 72 St. John’s L. Rev. 749 (1998), consists of a map drawn by Jill Dinneen (SJU Law '99), based on Sanborn maps from the 1950s and 1960s, photographs and eyewitness descriptions of downtown Cleveland then and now; and a key to marked locations on the map.

State Of Ohio V. Richard D. Chilton And State Of Ohio V. John W. Terry: The Suppression Hearing And Trial Transcripts, John Q. Barrett

Faculty Publications

This appendix to Deciding the Stop and Frisk Cases: A Look Inside the Supreme Court’s Conference, 72 St. John’s L. Rev. 749 (1998), includes Biographical Information on the Participants in the Case; and transcripts of the complete pretrial and trial proceedings in the 1964 criminal prosecutions of Richard Chilton and John Terry, arranged by Prof. Barrett to create the organization reflected in the Table of Contents at the beginning of the appendix. Footnotes were added to provide citations and, in a few instances, to clarify the text. Bracketed material was added to correct obvious slips of the tongue or the …

Fencing Cyberspace: Drawing Borders In A Virtual World, Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

In the last few years, the Internet has increasingly become a source of information even for the historically computer illiterate. The growing popularity of the Internet has been driven in large part by the World Wide Web (web). The web is a system that facilitates use of the Internet by helping users sort through the great mass of information available on it. The web uses software that allows one document to link to and access another, and so on, despite the fact that the documents may reside on different machines in physically remote locations. The dispersion of data that is …

The Law Of The Jubilee In Modern Perspective, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Law And The Coming Environmental Catastrophe, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Where Do We Draw The Line Between Harassment And Free Speech?: An Analysis Of Hunter Harassment Law, Katherine Hessler

Animal Law Review

Ms. Hessler examines the constitutionality of the federal hunter harassment statute and concludes that protests of hunting events should be protected under the First Amendment.

The Police, Pretextual Investigatory Activity, And The Fourth Amendment: What Hath Whren Wrought, Mark M. Dobson

St. Thomas Law Review

Part II of this article briefly discusses the debate over what was considered pretextual activity in the time before Whren. Part III then analyzes both the facts and resolution of the pretext issue presented in Whren itself. Part IV explores what Wiren means for the future, both in terms of how this decision, when coupled with existing Fourth Amendment precedent enlarges what the police can do; and how two other Fourth Amendment cases which have recently been handed down, may even further expand what the police can do.

Gateway Widens Doorway To Imposing Unfair Binding Arbitration On Consumers, Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

Hill v. Gateway, is but the most extreme example of a series of court decisions that allow large companies to impose potentially unfair binding arbitration agreements on unwitting consumers. The outcome in Gateway, however, is questionable on federal statutory, common law, and constitutional grounds.

Courting Disrespect, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Asimov Goes To Law School, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

The Impact Of United States V. Lopez Upon Selected Firearms Provisions Of Title 18 U.S.C. 922, Carlo D'Angelo

St. Thomas Law Review

This Note will examine the Court's holding in Lopez and discuss how it may impact jurisdiction over other selected federal firearm statutes. Part I traces the development of the Interstate Commerce Clause through a brief analysis of its history. Part II discusses the Supreme Court's majority holding in Lopez, while Part III analyzes the holding's possible impact upon other selected federal firearm statutes.

Residential Zoning Regulations And The Perpetuation Of Apartheid, Janai S. Nelson

Faculty Publications

In January of 1996, the South African Parliament ratified the long-awaited Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Bill, which has engendered heated controversy since its inception. For many, the success of the Land Reform Bill portends the economic and political future of South Africa and is a gauge of apartheid's vital signs. Without land, most South Africans would remain in the same impoverished and disenfranchised conditions that they were in under the apartheid regime. With land, however, South Africans have an improved chance to achieve economic equality. Land reform and land use have become particularly crucial issues in light of President Mandela's …

The First Stone Of The Death Penalty, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Cruelly Unusual, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Pa. Justices Were Wrong To Fill Spot, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Recent Developments In Pennsylvania Death Penalty Law, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

A Fond Farewell, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Perspectives On The Law Of The American Sit-In, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Congress' Authority To Abrogate A State's Eleventh Amendment Immunity From Suit: Will Seminole Tribe V. Florida Be Seminal, Jeffrey B. Mallory

St. Thomas Law Review

The United States has undertaken a policy of assisting sovereign Indian nations in fulfilling their right to self-government by enacting legislation that promotes the attainment of economic viability. As an affirmation of this policy, the 100th Congress of the United States enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), the purpose of which was "to provide a statutory basis for the operation of gaming by Indian tribes as a means of promoting tribal economic development, self-sufficiency, and strong tribal governments ...." Today, gaming on tribal land is the fastest growing segment of the nation's gaming industry with annual revenues of $5.4 …

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. V. Fcc: The Supreme Court Establishes A Standard Of Review For First Amendment Issues Involving Cable Litigation, Kathryn Seagle Robbie

St. Thomas Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Constitution Of Belarus: A Good First Step Towards The Rule Of Law, Gary M. Shaw

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Substance Above All: The Utopian Vision Of Modern Natural Law Constitutionalists, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

Modern natural law constitutionalists assert that the Constitution, properly understood, includes a kind of general trump card in the form of a moral reality which provides (or is, at any rate, thought to provide) a measure of all positive legal acts--whether framed in terms of the values of natural equality, natural rights, or “simple justice.”

This article explores why “trump card” natural law constitutionalism cannot by its nature adequately confront crucial issues of institutional design and democratic theory. In thus putting questions of moral substance ahead of crucial issues of authority, natural law constitutionalism appears to rest on a naive, …