Constitutional Law Commons^™

Congressional Control Of Presidential Pardons, Glenn H. Reynolds

Nevada Law Journal Forum

The reach of the presidential pardon power has been much in the news of late (for a variety of reasons). It is well established that the pardon power is plenary; that it can be exercised in advance of formal criminal charges being filed; and that it does not extend to state crimes; but there remain many unsettled (and unsettling) questions. Can a president pardon himself? Can a pardon, though perfectly lawful in itself, constitute obstruction of justice? Can a president use a pardon, issued in advance of criminal activity, to insulate an actor from criminal liability before the criminal act …

Rwu First Amendment Blog: Diana Hassel's Blog: How Will Supreme Court Slice Wedding Cake Case 01-11-2018, Diana Hassel

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Martin Luther King Jr. On Economy, Ecology, And Civilization: Toward A Mlk Jr-Inspired Ecotheology, Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

This MLK Jr-inspired ecotheology [eco-theology] connects “economics,” “ecology,” and “ecological civilization” to the theological ethics of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Though we often remember King primarily as a domestic civil rights leader; attention to King’s book—Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967) reveals that he advanced a global ethics. King called for replacing recourse to war with nonviolent resistance to evil, and for abolishing poverty throughout “the world house.” He prescribed that we “civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.” King was concerned with civilizing “the world house” (house …

January 9, 2018: Dangerous Hypocrisy On The Right, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Dangerous Hypocrisy on the Right“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Hb 434 - Eminent Domain, Ashley M. Bowcott, Derek M. Schwahn

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act amends Georgia’s eminent domain laws by providing an exception to the general rule that condemnations cannot be converted to any use, other than a public use, for twenty years. The Act creates a new procedure which requires the condemnor to petition the jurisdiction’s superior court to determine whether the property is blighted property. Additionally, the condemnor must provide notice to all owners of the alleged blighted property. If the court finds the land is blighted property, the condemnor must file a petition to condemn the property according to the established procedure set forth in Article 3 Chapter 2 …

Hb 280 - Campus Carry, Taylor Morgan Koshak, Nicholas J. Roger

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act broadens lawful gun owners’ rights by allowing weapons carry license holders to carry concealed guns on property owned or leased by public institutions of postsecondary education. The Act creates exceptions for sporting events, student housing, childcare spaces, classes for a college and career academy and other specialized schools, classrooms for dual enrollment programs, and spaces for administrative disciplinary proceedings. The law creates a misdemeanor penalty for noncompliance, and provides definitions for clarification.

January 7, 2018: The Democrats: Stupid Again, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Democrats: Stupid Again" discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

January 6, 2018: Greetings From San Diego, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Greetings from San Diego“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Soda Taxes As A Legal And Social Movement, David A. Dana, Janice Nadler

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The Dormant Commerce Clause?: Climate Change And Food Security, Michael Barsa

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

The Resurrection Of Trust In American Law And Public Discourse, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

Burns V Corbett: What If The High Court Had Decided The Implied Freedom Of Political Communication Issue?, A. Keith K. Thompson

The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review

Because the Commonwealth has never fulfilled its promise to domesticate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 (ICCPR), human rights in Australia remain an uncertain blend of federal and state anti-discrimination statutes, common law rights and constitutional implications. The litigation surrounding Tess Corbett’s media interview in Hamilton, Victoria when she was campaigning as a candidate in the 2013 federal election, highlights that uncertainty. Should her statements have been protected because the voters in Wannon, Victoria needed to know her views so as to vote in an informed way, or did New South Wales’ interest in stamping out the …

When Should Employers Be Liable For Factoring Biased Customer Feedback Into Employment Decisions?, Dallan F. Flake

Law Faculty Scholarship

In today’s customer-centric business environment, firms seek feedback from consumers seemingly at every turn. Firms factor customer feedback into a host of decisions, including employment-related decisions such as who to hire, promote, and fire; how much to pay employees; and what tasks to assign them. Increasingly, researchers are discovering that customer feedback is often biased against certain populations, such as women and racial minorities. Sometimes customers explicitly declare their biases, but more often their prejudices are harder to detect — either because they intentionally hide their biases in their ratings or because the customers do not realize their own biases, …

Petition For Writ Of Certiorari, Morrow V. Ford, Leslie C. Griffin, Marci A. Hamilton

Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Disclaiming Property, Michael Pappas

Faculty Scholarship

Can Congress pick and choose when it must follow the Constitution? One would expect not, and yet the Supreme Court has allowed it to do so. In multiple statutory programs, Congress has disclaimed constitutional property protections for valuable interests that otherwise serve as property. The result is billions of dollars’ worth of “disclaimed property” that can be bought, sold, mortgaged, or leased, but that can also be revoked at any moment without due process or just compensation.

Disclaimed property already represents a great source of value, and property disclaimers are at the core of major recent policies ranging from natural …

Multiracial Malaise: Multiracial As A Legal Racial Category, Taunya L. Banks

Faculty Scholarship

One byproduct of increased interracial marriages post Loving is a growing number of multiracial children. This cohort of multiracials tends to overshadow older and larger generations of multiracial people whose genealogical mixture is more distant. Some interracial couples, their multiracial children and others support a multiracial category on the U.S. Census. Proponents argued that multiracial individuals experience a unique type of discrimination that warrants treating them as a separate racial category. This article concedes that multiracial individuals should enjoy the freedom to self-identify as they wish, and like others, be protected by anti-discrimination law. It concludes, however, that current arguments …

Cybersurveillance Intrusions And An Evolving Katz Privacy Test, Margaret Hu

Scholarly Articles

To contextualize why a new approach to the Fourth Amendment is essential, this Article describes two emerging cybersurveillance tools. The first Cybersurveillance tool, Geofeedia, has been deployed by state and local law enforcement. Geofeedia uses a process known as "geofencing" to draw a virtual barrier around a particular geographic region, and then identifies and tracks public social media posts within that region for predictive policing purposes. The second tool, Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), is under development by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). FAST is another predictive policing tool that analyzes physiological and behavioral signals with the …

The Resurrection Of Trust In American Law And Public Discourse, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

Biosocial Criminology Versus The Constitution, Karen E. Balter

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The continually emerging field of biosocial criminology provides a basis for productively merging biology with sociological reasonings for criminal behavior. Mainstream research in criminology focuses on environmental factors as the sole reason individuals exhibit antisocial behavior patterns and may ultimately commit crimes. Criminological research has travelled in this direction for decades. The current climate within this community subscribes heavily to the notion that biology has very little to do with why people behave the way they do, and if it did, government control would be the norm. The nature of biocriminology opens a door through which constitutional issues may enter. …

El Constitucionalismo En Los Estados Unidos, Robert S. Barker

Barker Books

This is the Spanish translation of a 1987 English text, written for the commemoration of the 200^th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution.

Isolation Of Mitochondrial Dna From Single, Short Hairs Without Roots Using Pressure Cycling Technology, Kathryn A. Harper, Kelly A. Meiklejohn, Richard T. Merritt, Jessica Walker, Constance L. Fisher, James M. Robertson

United States Department of Justice: Publications

Hairs are commonly submitted as evidence to forensic laboratories, but standard nuclear DNA analysis is not always possible. Mitochondria (mt) provide another source of genetic material; however, manual isolation is laborious. In a proof-of-concept study, we assessed pressure cycling technology (PCT; an automated approach that subjects samples to varying cycles of high and low pressure) for extracting mtDNA from single, short hairs without roots. Using three microscopically similar donors, we determined the ideal PCT conditions and compared those yields to those obtained using the traditional manual micro-tissue grinder method. Higher yields were recovered from grinder extracts, but yields from PCT …

A Review And Conceptual Model Of Factors Correlated With Postmortem Root Band Formation, Joseph Donfack, Hilda S. Castillo

United States Department of Justice: Publications

It is generally accepted within the forensic trace evidence community that a postmortem root band (PMRB) can appear in the root of hairs attached to remains during decomposition. Presently, the specific sequences of events and/or exact molecular signals that lead to the formation of a PMRB are not well understood. The published literature addressing the abiotic and biotic factors that correlate with the formation of PMRBs is reviewed and a conceptual model for the formation of PMRBs is proposed.

Science‐Based Interviewing: Information Elicitation, Susan E. Brandon, Simon Wells, Colton Seale

United States Department of Justice: Publications

This article describes an ethical and effective science‐based model of interviewing. An initial planning phase assists the investigative team in separating facts from inferences, decreases the likelihood of errors based on cognitive biases, and prompts careful preparation of the environment. The interview begins with an explanation of why the subject is being questioned. The interviewer then metaphorically hands the interview over to the subject, making him the talker and the interviewer the listener. The interviewer engages in active listening, soliciting as much information from the subject as possible by deploying tactics that enhance memory based on science, including elements of …

Criminal Thinking, Psychiatric Symptoms, And Recovery Attitudes Among Community Mental Health Patients, Nicole R. Bartholomew, Robert D. Morgan, Sean M. Mitchell, Stephanie A. Van Horn

United States Department of Justice: Publications

Research suggests it is important to consider criminogenic needs among individuals with severe mental illness. This study aimed to determine the severity of criminal thinking in community-based clinical samples, understand the association between criminal thinking and psychiatric and criminal justice outcomes, and compare these associations between consumers enrolled in Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) programs. Participants (N = 234) were male and female consumers enrolled in ACT and FACT programs in five states. Results revealed no significant differences in criminal thinking when comparing participants by program type or history of criminal justice involvement. There …

Integration Of Paper Spray Ionization High‐Field Asymmetric Waveform Ion Mobility Spectrometry For Forensic Applications, Chia-Wei Tsai, Christopher A. Tipple, Richard A. Yost

United States Department of Justice: Publications

Rationale: Paper spray ionization (PSI) is an attractive ambient ionization source for mass spectrometry (MS) since it allows the combination of surface sampling and ionization. The minimal sample preparation inherent in this approach greatly reduces the time needed for analysis. However, the ions generated from interfering compounds in the sample and the paper substrate may interfere with the analyte ions. Therefore, the integration of PSI with high‐field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) is of significant interest since it should reduce the background ions entering the mass analyzer without complicating the analysis or increasing analysis time. Here we demonstrate the integration …

Development And Validation Of A Solid Phase Extraction Sample Cleanup Procedure For The Recovery Of Trace Levels Of Nitro-Organic Explosives In Soil, Jennifer L. Thomas, Christopher C. Donnelly, Erin W. Lloyd, Robert F. Mothershead Ii, Mark L. Miller

United States Department of Justice: Publications

An improved cleanup method has been developed for the recovery of trace levels of 12 nitro-organic explosives in soil, which is important not only for the forensic community, but also has environmental implications. A wide variety of explosives or explosive-related compounds were evaluated, including nitramines, nitrate esters, nitroaromatics, and a nitroalkane. Fortified soil samples were extracted with acetone, processed via solid phase extraction (SPE), and then analyzed by gas chromatography with electron capture detection. The following three SPE sorbents in cartridge format were compared: Empore^TM SDB-XC, Oasis HLB, and Bond Elut NEXUS cartridges. The NEXUS cartridges provided the best …

Potential Effects Of Ionizing Radiation On The Evidentiary Value Of Dna, Latent Fingerprints, Hair, And Fibers: A Comprehensive Review And New Results, Keith L. Monson, Sherine Ali, Michael D. Brandhagen, Martine C. Duff, Constance L. Fisher, Karen K. Lowe, Carna E. Meyer, Maria A. Roberts, Kyle R. Tom, Aaron L. Washington Ii

United States Department of Justice: Publications

An extensive literature review and new post-irradiation experimental results are presented of genotyping blood stains and hair, and physical examinations of latent fingerprints, hairs, and fibers. Results indicate that successful development of nuclear short tandem repeat (STR) and mitochondrial DNA sequence profiles from human blood and hair evidence is possible—up to a point—following exposure to gamma, neutron, beta, and alpha radiation at several levels that would most likely be present at this type of crime scene (i.e., a “dirty bomb,” etc.). Commencing at gamma radiation levels between 90 and 900 kGy, DNA analysis using conventional DNA techniques was unsuccessful. In …

A Protocol For Obtaining Dna Barcodes From Plant And Insect Fragments Isolated From Forensic-Type Soils, Kelly A. Meiklejohn, Megan L. Jackson, Libby A. Stern, James M. Robertson

United States Department of Justice: Publications

Soil is often collected from a suspect’s tire, vehicle, or shoes during a criminal investigation and subsequently submitted to a forensic laboratory for analysis. Plant and insect material recovered in such samples is rarely analyzed, as morphological identification is difficult. In this study, DNA barcoding was used for taxonomic identifications by targeting the gene regions known to permit discrimination in plants [maturase K (matK) and ribulose 1,5-biphosphate carboxylase (rbcL)] and insects [cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI)]. A DNA barcode protocol suitable for processing forensic-type biological fragments was developed and its utility broadly tested with …

Use Of The Lus In Sequence Allele Designations To Facilitate Probabilistic Genotyping Of Ngs-Based Str Typing Results, Rebecca S. Just, Jodi A. Irwin

United States Department of Justice: Publications

Some of the expected advantages of next generation sequencing (NGS) for short tandem repeat (STR) typing include enhanced mixture detection and genotype resolution via sequence variation among non-homologous alleles of the same length. However, at the same time that NGS methods for forensic DNA typing have advanced in recent years, many caseworking laboratories have implemented or are transitioning to probabilistic genotyping to assist the interpretation of complex autosomal STR typing results. Current probabilistic software programs are designed for length-based data, and were not intended to accommodate sequence strings as the product input. Yet to leverage the benefits of NGS for …

When I Left The Darwin Day Committee, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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