Constitutional Law Commons^™

How Courts Analyze Voter Identification Laws Under The First Amendment, Joby Len Richard

LSU Master's Theses

Some scholarship and political experts describe voter ID laws as a form of voter suppression because they make it harder for certain groups of people to vote. First, this thesis considers the historical backdrop of voter discrimination resulting in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and subsequent state uses of registration and voter ID laws. Then, this study reviews the theoretical foundation of freedom of expression as developed by Thomas Emerson and individual and social free expression values, including the social value of self-governance explicated by Alexander Meiklejohn. Some scholars also suggest that voter ID laws may …

Personal Jurisdiction Over Orb-Web Corporations: A Re-Routed Approach For "Change In The Navigation Of Time", Vidhya Iyer

Global Business Law Review

The law of personal jurisdiction lies at the heart of all litigation. Our courts must recognize the rights of individuals as well as the rights of corporations. The motto placed at the entrance of the United States Supreme Court—"Equal Justice Under Law"—ensures the promise of equal justice under the law to all persons. It expresses the ultimate responsibility of the Supreme Court of the United States (the "Court") as the highest tribunal for all cases and controversies arising under the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States and functions as a guardian and interpreter of the Constitution. From the …

July 1, 2018: Can We Agree That Not Everything Unions Do Is Speech, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Can We Agree that not Everything Unions Do is Speech“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

The Takings Keepings Clause: An Analysis Of Framing Effects From Labelling Constitutional Rights, Donald J. Kochan

Florida State University Law Review

Did you know that the "Takings Clause" was not called the "Takings Clause" by any court before 1955? That was the first time that any court of any jurisdiction referred to the provisions regarding takings of private property in either the federal or state constitutions under the label "Takings Clause." Did you know that justices of the U.S. Supreme Court did not use the moniker "Takings Clause" in any opinion before 1978? Given this history, the phrase "Takings Clause," whether an apt descriptor or not, certainly cannot be justified as the dominant way to refer to these provisions by contemporaneous …

Righting A Wrong: Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, And The Espionage Act Prosecutions, David Forte

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This is a story of excess and reparation. It is a chronicle of one President from the elite intellectual classes of the East, and another from a county seat in the heartland. Woodrow Wilson was the college president whose contribution to the art of government lay in the principle of expertise and efficiency. When he went to war, he turned the machinery of government into a comprehensive and highly effective instrument for victory. For Wilson, it followed that there could be little tolerance for those who impeded the success of American arms by their anti-war propaganda, draft resistance, or ideological …

Martin, Ghana, And Global Legal Studies, H. Timothy Lovelace Jr.

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This brief essay uses global legal studies to reconsider Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s activism after Gayle v. Browder. During this undertheorized portion of King's career, the civil rights leader traveled the world and gained a greater appreciation for comparative legal and political analysis. This essay explores King's first trip abroad and demonstrates how King's close study of Kwame Nkrumah's approaches to law reform helped to lay the foundation for watershed moments in King's own life. In To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr., renowned civil rights scholar and author, Adam …

The Global Person: Pig-Human Embryos, Personhood, And Precision Medicine, Yvonne Cripps

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Chimeras, in the form of pig-human embryos engineered by CRISPR-Cas9 and other biotechnologies, have been created as potential sources of organs for transplantation. Against that background, and in an era of "precision medicine," this Article examines the concept of the global genetically modified person and asks whether humanness and personhood are being eroded, or finding new boundaries in intellectual property and constitutional law.

What Is Discriminatory Intent?, Aziz Z. Huq

Cornell Law Review

The Constitution’s protection of racial and religious groups is organized around the concept of discriminatory intent. But the Supreme Court has never provided a crisp, single definition of ‘discriminatory intent’ that applies across different institutions and public policy contexts. Instead, current jurisprudence tacks among numerous, competing conceptions of unconstitutional intent. Amplifying the doctrine’s complexity, the Court has also taken conflicting approaches to the question of how to go about substantiating impermissible motives with admissible evidence.

The Court’s pluralistic view of intent is in theory plausible, and perhaps even unavoidable. But its lack of any consistent approach in practice to the …

Congressional Standing To Sue: The Role Of Courts And Congress In U.S. Constitutional Democracy, Vicki C. Jackson

Indiana Law Journal

In recent years, legislatures and their members have increasingly asserted standing to sue other branches of government, in controversies involving state legislators or legislatures as party litigants and in controversies involving members of or parts of the U.S. Congress. These cases present challenging questions for the federal Article III courts, whose jurisdiction has been interpreted to be bounded by “justiciability” doctrines, including that the party invoking federal court jurisdiction must have standing to do so. This Essay will focus on congressional standing, discussing case law involving claims by state legislatures or legislators to the extent they are relevant.1 It will …

Aligning Education Rights And Remedies, Joshua Weishart

Law Faculty Scholarship

Over the course of five decades and three waves of litigation, courts have approved remedies under the state constitutional right to education that demand more equitable and adequate funding of public schools. Scholars have urgently called for a 'fourth wave" of litigation seeking remedies beyond money: racial and socioeconomic integration, school choice, universal preschool, and teacher tenure reform, just to name a few. Desperate for progress and to escape the incessant rut of school funding battles, advocates have, in turn, initiated lawsuits seeking a broader range of remedies. If this strategy induces a fourth wave, advocates will encounter a beleaguered …

"It's Open Season At The Border": Why The Bivens Remedy Should Extend To U.S. Border Patrol Agents In Cross-Border Shootings, Samantha Garza

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Shifts Supremacy Doctrine—Preempting State Sustainability?, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

The Supreme Court recently applied the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution to sustainable energy technology. Three recent decisions of the Supreme Court, as well as subsequent decisions of the federal circuit courts and a federal adjudicatory commission, reconfigured the constitutional doctrine preempting state regulation of sustainable power. Through these three decisions, the Court reduced Chevron deference afforded to regulatory agencies, a venerated legal doctrine.

After All These Years, Lochner Was Not Crazy—It Was Good, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

For this year’s Rosenkranz Debate, we have been asked to debate the question: Lochner v. New York: Still Crazy After All These Years? It is my job to defend the “negative” position. My burden is not to establish that Lochner was correctly decided, but merely that it was not “crazy.” I intend to meet that burden and exceed it. I intend to show how Lochner v. New York was not at all crazy; in fact, it was a reasonable and good decision.

Forum Selection Clauses And Consumer Contracts In Canada, Tanya J. Monestier

Journal Articles

Every day, billions of people use the online social media platform, Facebook. Facebook requires, as a condition of use, that users “accept” its terms and conditions—which include a forum selection clause nominating California as the exclusive forum for dispute resolution. In Douez v. Facebook, the Supreme Court of Canada considered whether this forum selection clause was enforceable, or whether the plaintiff could proceed with her suit in British Columbia.

The Supreme Court of Canada ultimately decided that the forum selection clause was not enforceable. It held that the plaintiff had established “strong cause” for departing from the forum selection clause. …

Unusual: The Death Penalty For Inadvertent Killing, Guyora Binder, Brenner Fissell, Robert Weisberg

Journal Articles

Can a burglar who frightens the occupant of a house, causing a fatal heart attack, be executed? More generally, does the Eighth Amendment permit capital punishment of one who causes death inadvertently? This scenario is possible in the significant minority of American jurisdictions that permit capital punishment for felony murder without requiring a mental state of intent to kill or reckless indifference to human life. Thus far, Eighth Amendment death penalty jurisprudence has required a culpable mental state of recklessness for execution of accomplices in a fatal felony, but has not yet addressed the culpability required for execution of the …

The Confrontation Clause: Employing The "Greatest Legal Engine Ever Invented For The Discovery Of Truth" To Promote Justice In Criminal Courts, Ani Oganesian

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

No abstract provided.

Konstitutionalitas Undang-Undang No 16 Tahun 2017 Tentang Penetapan Perppu Nomor 2 Tahun 2017 Tentang Organisasi Masyarakat Ditinjau Dari Uud 1945 Dan Konsep Negara Hukum (Rechstaat), M. Beni Kurniawan

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

This research is a normative study that is perscriptive in order to provide solutions to the problems of Civil Society Organizations in Indonesia. This paper study theConstitutionality of Article 61 and 62 of Act Number 16 of 2017 on Stipulating Government Regulation In Lieu of Law No. 2 of 2017 which regulates the Dissolution of CSOs if reviewed from the 1945 Constitution and the Rule of Law’s Concept. As a result of the research can be concluded that Article 61 and 62 of Act Number 16 of 2017 On Stipulating Perppu No. 2 of 2017 which gives authority to the …

Unusual: The Death Penalty For Inadvertent Killing, Brenner M. Fissell, Guyora Binder, Robert Weisberg

Faculty Publications

Can a burglar who frightens the occupant of a house, causing a fatal heart attack, be executed? More generally, does the Eighth Amendment permit capital punishment of one who causes death inadvertently? This scenario is possible in the significant minority of American jurisdictions that permit capital punishment for felony murder without requiring a mental state of intent to kill or reckless indifference to human life. Thus far, Eighth Amendment death penalty jurisprudence has required a culpable mental state of recklessness for execution of accomplices in a fatal felony, but has not yet addressed the culpability required for execution of the …

Emoluments, Zones Of Interests, And Political Questions: A Cautionary Tale, Jed Handelsman Shugerman, Gautham Rao

Faculty Scholarship

The “political question” doctrine is hotly contested in 2018, and perhaps on the verge of its biggest reversal since the Baker v. Carr revolution. Later this year, we will learn if the Supreme Court in Whitford v. Gill will regard extreme partisan gerrymandering as a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, rather than as a nonjusticiable political question.¹ It turns out that another high-profile case in the lower courts illuminates the use and misuse of the political question doctrine. The Emoluments cases, and in particular, the Southern District of New York’s dismissal of CREW v. Trump, ^{2 …}

Rwu First Amendment Blog: Michael J. Yelnosky's Blog: Janus V. Afscme And "Weaponizing The First Amendment 06-30-2018, Michael J. Yelnosky

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Child Separation In The Courts, Deborah Pearlstein

Online Publications

Developments in the ongoing child separation crisis have come so quickly in the past week it is nearly impossible even for experts to keep track. Donald Trump’s executive order requiring an end to the child separation policy, his administration’s subsequent announcement that it would halt its “zero-tolerance” policy of prosecuting the misdemeanor offense of illegal entry, the California federal court’s Tuesday decision halting further separation and requiring currently separated families be reunified — all of these are positive developments for those concerned about the catastrophic effects of the policy on children and families. But the legal battle here is far …

Kennedy’S Retirement: Despair Not, Go Out And Organize, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

Combating Fake News In Social Media: U.S. And German Legal Approaches, Ryan Kraski

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

When asking how fake news in social media can be combated under U.S. and German law, one must first take the systems’ most fundamental differences into consideration. U.S. law is characterized by its federal structure, the interaction of state laws often with the federal, U.S. Constitution, usage of pretrial discovery, as well as the role of juries in calculating damages. In contrast, Germany, as a civil law system, is characterized by its usage of separate legal actions to acquire information, lack of pretrial discovery, and broader array of available remedies, none of which allow for punitive damages. Through a …

June 26, 2018: Liberal Inconsistency And Arrogance, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

June 23, 2018: Best Paul Krugman Column Ever, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ Best Paul Krugman Column Ever“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: Discovering Trump 06-22-2018, David A. Logan

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Suppression Of Free Tweets: How Packingham Impacts The New Era Of Government Social Media And The First Amendment, Elise Berry

ConLawNOW

As social media popularity grows, so too does the constitutional conflicts between the First Amendment’s public forum doctrine and a public official’s social media. More and more claims of viewpoint discrimination are arising from the district courts, stemming from a public official’s use of his or her social media to delete comments or ban users from their official social media pages. Similarly, President Donald Trump’s use of his Twitter has also instigated a law suit against him for viewpoint discrimination under the public forum doctrine. While the Supreme Court has been silent on the issue, its decision in Packingham v. …

June 18, 2018: We Don’T Live In A Post-Credal Age—Only Power Lives In A Post-Credal Age, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “We Don’t Live in a Post-Credal Age—Only Power Lives in a Post-Credal Age“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

June 15, 2018: What Is Wrong?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “What is Wrong?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

June 12, 2018: My Response To Ross Douthat Column On Free Speech Saving Us, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “My Response to Ross Douthat Column on Free Speech Saving Us“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.