Constitutional Law Commons^™

November 24, 2018: Letter About Kornacki's Book, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ Letter about Kornacki's book“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 23, 2018: Thanksgiving 2018, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Thanksgiving 2018“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 21, 2018: Is The New York Times Right About China?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Is the New York Times Right About China?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 17, 2018: The Matthew Whitaker Appointment, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Matthew Whitaker Appointment“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

11th Marine Law Symposium: Legal Strategies For Climate Adaptation In Coastal New England 2018, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Marine Affairs Institute Conferences, Lectures, and Events

No abstract provided.

The Theory And Practice Of Contestatory Federalism, James A. Gardner

William & Mary Law Review

Madisonian theory holds that a federal division of power is necessary to the protection of liberty, but that federalism is a naturally unstable form of government organization that is in constant danger of collapsing into either unitarism or fragmentation. Despite its inherent instability, this condition may be permanently maintained, according to Madison, through a constitutional design that keeps the system in equipoise by institutionalizing a form of perpetual contestation between national and subnational governments. The theory, however, does not specify how that contestation actually occurs, and by what means.

This paper investigates Madison’s hypothesis by documenting the methods actually deployed …

Lincoln, Presidential Power, And The Rule Of Law, Daniel A. Farber

Northwestern University Law Review

Every era has its unique challenges, but history may still offer lessons on how law empowers and restrains presidents. This Essay examines how President Lincoln negotiated the tension between crisis authority and the rule of law. This analysis requires an appreciation of the wartime imperatives, institutions, and political forces confronting Lincoln, as well as the legal framework in which he acted. Similar issues unexpectedly arose in our times in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, providing a new point of comparison with Lincoln’s era. We need to better understand how political actors and institutions, the media, and public opinion can …

Book Review: Dershowitz On Presidential Impeachment: An Analysis Of The Case Against Impeaching Trump, Michael Conklin

ConLawNOW

This is a review of Alan Dershowitz’s 2018 book, The Case Against Impeaching Trump. Because the Constitution provides little guidance on presidential impeachment, the issue is often interpreted based on political party affiliation. Dershowitz, a strong Hillary Clinton supporter, provides a neutral examination of the issue. This review contains analysis of the current state of impeachment efforts, Dershowitz’s arguments against impeachment, and a critique of his proposed “shoe on the other foot” test.

Lockett Symposium: Recollections On The Lockett Case In The U.S. Supreme Court, Joel Berger

ConLawNOW

Recollections of an NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney who worked with Professor Amsterdam on the Lockett case.

Lockett Symposium: Lockett As It Was, Is Now, And Ever Shall Should Be, Karen A. Steele

ConLawNOW

Lockett made clear what was constitutionally unacceptable in capital sentencing statutes (limiting the range of mitigating factors to be considered) while affirmatively heralding the significance and breadth of mitigating factors unique to the defendant that must be affirmatively and independently considered by jurors, courts and counsel; the inverse correlation between mitigating factors and disproportionate sentencing; and the interrelationship between mitigating factors and narrowing—all in an effort to provide a “meaningful basis for distinguishing the few cases in which the death penalty is imposed from the many cases in which it is not.” The threatened and actual use of “double-edged” aspects …

November 9, 2018: The Electoral College, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Electoral College“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

In Defense Of Hearth And [Foster] Home: Determining The Constitutionality Of State Regulation Of Firearm Storage In Foster Homes, Joseph G. Duchane

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

November 4, 2018: The God Construct, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The God Construct“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 3, 2018: A Society Without A Soul, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “A Society Without a Soul“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Executive Authority And The Take Care Clause, Colleen E. O'Connor

Notre Dame Law Review

Part I of this Note will discuss the Department of Homeland Security’s authority to regulate immigration and focuses on DACA and DAPA. Part II will address the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel Opinion on DAPA’s legality. Part III will turn to the lack of judicial constraints on or legislative responses to the executive branch’s enforcement discretion. Part IV will propose that the executive branch should take a more active role in ensuring that the President remains faithful to the Take Care Clause when exercising prosecutorial discretion. Expounding upon the Office of Legal Counsel’s multifactor framework is a …

Individual Rights Under State Constitutions In 2018: What Rights Are Deeply Rooted In A Modern-Day Consensus Of The States?, Steven G. Calabresi, James Lindgren, Hannah M. Begley, Kathryn L. Dore, Sarah E. Agudo

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article is actually the third and final article in a series that began with (A) Steven G. Calabresi & Sarah E. Agudo, Individual Rights Under State Constitutions When the Fourteenth Amendment Was Ratified in 1868: What Rights Are Deeply Rooted in American History and Tradition?; and (B) Steven G. Calabresi, Sarah E. Agudo, and Kathryn L. Dore, State Bills of Rights in 1787 and 1791: What Individual Rights Are Really Deeply Rooted in American History and Tradition?. This Article looks at what rights are protected by state constitutions today, in 2018, and compares our findings with the …

Due Process, Free Expression, And The Administrative State, Martin H. Redish, Kristin Mccall

Notre Dame Law Review

The first Part of this Article will explore the theoretical foundations of procedural due process, focusing particularly on the essential due process requirement of a neutral adjudicator. We will follow that discussion with an analysis of the extent to which administrative adjudication of constitutional challenges to its regulatory authority or decisions satisfies the demands of procedural due process. After concluding that administrative regulators categorically fail to satisfy the requirements of due process, at least in the context of constitutional challenges to their regulatory authority, we will explain why the availability of post–administrative judicial review cannot cure the constitutional defect in …

Abutbul V. Phillip, Hanan Melcer, Uri Shoham, David Mintz

Translated Opinions

[This abstract is not part of the Court's opinion and is provided for the reader's convenience. It has been translated from a Hebrew version prepared by Nevo Press Ltd. and is used with its kind permission.]

The Respondents filed an administrative petition with the Court for Administrative Affairs against the Appellants. The petition concerned the removal of signs placed throughout the city of Beit Shemesh, which comprised demands, requests and inscriptions that were offensive to women (hereinafter: the signs). In the framework of an consent judgment, it was determined that the Appellants must exercise all the powers of enforcement available …

Pennsylvania Gas: Trusts, Takings, And Judicial Temperaments, Joshua Ulan Galperin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Perhaps it is their role in our survival, or our economic growth, or the environment. Whatever the reason, energy and natural resource conflicts seems to be unique in the way they can drive significant doctrinal change even outside of energy and natural resource law. Pennsylvania has been a fountainhead of these conflicts. In 1921, Pennsylvania’s Kohler Act and lesser known Fowler Act, which sought to protect surface owners from anthracite coal mine subsidence and to increase tax revenue from anthracite mining, ignited the legal wrangling that eventually led to Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon. That U.S. Supreme Court decision transformed …

Murphy V. Ncaa: The Supreme Court's Latest Advance In Chemerinsky's "Federalism Revolution", Jonathan O. Ballard Jr.

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

Let Them Eat Cake: Why Public Proprietors Of Wedding Goods And Services Must Equally Serve All People, Labdhi Sheth, Molly Christ

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

The People's Lawyer: The Role Of Attorney General In The Twenty-First Century, Mark J. Herring

University of Richmond Law Review

For the last five years, it has been my privilege to serve the people as their attorney general. The origin of the position of attorney general can be traced back centuries, but in a world that has become more interconnected, complex, and fast-paced, what does the role of a state attorney general entail in the twenty-first century and beyond? Is the proper role as a diligent but reactive defender of statutes and state agencies, or is there a deeper responsibility that calls for a more proactive and engaged use of its tools and authority? I have found that the job …

The Canon Wars, Anita S. Krishnakumar, Victoria Nourse

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Canons are taking their turn down the academic runway in ways that no one would have foretold just a decade ago. Affection for canons of construction has taken center stage in recent Supreme Court cases and in constitutional theory. Harvard Dean John Manning and originalists Will Baude and Stephen Sachs have all suggested that principles of “ordinary interpretation” including canons should inform constitutional interpretation. Given this newfound enthusiasm for canons, and their convergence in both constitutional and statutory law, it is not surprising that we now have two competing book-length treatments of the canons—one by Justice Scalia and Bryan Garner, …

A Prudential Take On A Prudential Takings Doctrine, Katherine Mims Crocker

Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court is set to decide a case requesting reconsideration of a doctrine that has long bedeviled constitutional litigants and commentators. The case is Knick v. Township of Scott, and the doctrine is the "ripeness" rule from Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank that plaint~ffs seeking to raise takings claims under the Fifth Amendment must pursue state-created remedies first- the so-called "compensation prong" (as distinguished from a separate "takings prong"). This Essay argues that to put the compensation prong in the best light possible, the Court should view the requirement as a "prudential" rule rather than (as …

Arming Public Protests, Timothy Zick

Faculty Publications

Public protests have become armed events, with protesters and counter-protesters openly carrying firearms—generally pursuant to state law. Many view the presence of firearms at protest events as wholly incompatible with the exercise of First Amendment free speech and assembly rights. Although the Supreme Court has yet to decide whether there is a Second Amendment right to openly carry firearms in public, all but a small handful of states in the United States provide some legal protection for open carry. Taking the law as it currently stands, this Article provides a comprehensive assessment of the options available to officials who seek …

Property, Persons, And Institutionalized Police Interdiction In Byrd V. United States, Eric J. Miller

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

During a fairly routine traffic stop of a motorist driving a rental car, two State Troopers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, discovered that the driver, Terrence Byrd, was not the listed renter. The Court ruled that Byrd nonetheless retained a Fourth Amendment right to object to the search. The Court did not address, however, why the Troopers stopped Byrd in the first place. A close examination of the case filings reveal suggests that Byrd was stopped on the basis of his race. The racial feature ofthe stop is obscured by the Court’s current property-basedinterpretation of the Fourth Amendment’s right to privacy.

Although …

Universal Representation, Lindsay Nash

Articles

In an era in which there is little good news for immigrant communities and even holding the line has become an ambitious goal, one progressive project has continued to gain steam: the movement to provide universal representation for noncitizens in removal proceedings. This effort, initially born out of a pilot project in New York City, has generated a host of replication projects throughout the nation and holds the promise of even broader expansion. But as it grows, this effort must confront challenges from within: the sort-of supporters who want to limit this representation system's coverage in a number of ways, …

Bureaucratic Resistance And The National Security State, Rebecca Ingber

Faculty Scholarship

Modern accounts of the national security state tend toward one of two opposing views of bureaucratic tensions within it: At one extreme, the executive branch bureaucracy is a shadowy “deep state,” unaccountable to the public or even to the elected President. On this account, bureaucratic obstacles to the President’s agenda are inherently suspect, even dangerous. At the other end, bureaucratic resistance to the President represents a necessary benevolent constraint on an otherwise imperial executive, the modern incarnation of the separation of powers, as the traditional checks on the President of the courts and Congress have fallen down on the job. …

Discovery Cost Allocation, Due Process, And The Constitution's Role In Civil Litigation, Martin H. Redish

Vanderbilt Law Review

The issue of discovery cost allocation, long ignored by both courts and scholars, has become something of a cause celebre in the last few years. An article which I coauthored on the subject was part of that renewed interest.' In 2011, my former student, Colleen McNamara, and I wrote an article urging a dramatic change not only in the manner of how discovery costs are allocated, but an entirely new way of understanding the concept of discovery costs. 2 Since the original promulgation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 1938, it has been universally assumed that discovery costs …

Clinton V. Jones: The King Has No Clothes (Nor Absolute Immunity To Boot), Christopher James Sears

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.