Fourteenth Amendment Commons^™

Stuck In Ohio's Legal Limbo, How Many Mistrials Are Too Many Mistrials?: Exploring New Factors That Help A Trial Judge In Ohio Know Whether To Exercise Her Authority To Dismiss An Indictment With Prejudice, Especially Following Repeated Hung Juries, Samantha M. Cira

Cleveland State Law Review

Multiple mistrials following validly-prosecuted trials are becoming an increasingly harsh reality in today’s criminal justice system. Currently, the Ohio Supreme Court has not provided any guidelines to help its trial judges know when to make the crucial decision to dismiss an indictment with prejudice following a string of properly-declared mistrials, especially due to repeated hung juries. Despite multiple mistrials that continue to result in no conviction, criminal defendants often languish behind bars, suffering detrimental psychological harm and a loss of personal freedom as they remain in “legal limbo” waiting to retry their case. Furthermore, continuously retrying defendants cuts against fundamental …

Pushing The Limits: Reining In Ohio's Residency Restrictions For Sex Offenders, Taurean J. Shattuck

Cleveland State Law Review

The danger to children posed by convicted sex offenders living near schools, parks, and bus stops has been greatly exaggerated by the media. In turn, many state legislatures have attempted to find solutions to this perceived problem, imposing sanctions that seem to keep the "problem" at bay. A relatively new approach prevents those convicted of sex crimes from living within a certain distance of places where children congregate. Ohio is one of the states that has adopted this approach. The problem with this approach, however, is that imposing such restrictions on all individuals convicted of certain crimes imposes barriers to …

Punitive Damages Revisited: A Statistical Analysis Of How Federal Circuit Courts Decide The Constitutionality Of Such Awards, Hironari Momioka

Cleveland State Law Review

Using data from punitive damages decisions of U.S. federal circuit courts from 2004 to 2012, this paper attempts to establish empirically the following: (1) there is no apparent statistical difference between the levels of jury and judge awards; (2) U.S. Supreme Court decisions such as Philip Morris (2007) or Exxon (2008) do not actually or substantially affect the level of punitive damage awards; (3) with regard to the cases involving remittitur, or reduction of awards, the Exxon decision did not radically affect the decreasing ratio of punitive to compensatory damage awards; (4) as the levels of compensatory awards go up, …

With Liberty And Justice For Some: Denial Of Meaningful Due Process In School Disciplinary Actions In Ohio, Genevieve Vince

Cleveland State Law Review

Students face many different obstacles in school and arbitrary exclusion should not be one of them. Despite the Supreme Court stating that students do not shed their rights at the schoolhouse gate, they in fact do shed their rights. This Note examines how school disciplinary actions deny students meaningful due process. It discusses the foundation of modern due process, including what other rights have been incorporated into the contemporary understanding of due process as well as its historic roots. Additionally, this Note explores the case that established the procedures required of school administrators to comport with a student’s right to …

Same-Sex Sex And Immutable Traits: Why Obergefell V. Hodges Clears A Path To Protecting Gay And Lesbian Employees From Workplace Discrimination Under Title Vii, Matthew W. Green Jr.

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article is set forth in five parts. Part II is largely descriptive and focuses on two aspects of Obergefell: (1) the Court's clarification that adult, private, consensual, same-sex sexual intimacy is a fundamental right, protected by the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause and (2) the Court's recognition that leading mental health and medical groups consider sexual orientation to be immutable. Part III examines how courts and the EEOC have treated sexual orientation discrimination under Title VII and contains a normative discussion which argues—consistent with the position of other commentators, some courts, and the EEOC—that sexual orientation …

The Constitutionality Of Prison Privatization: An Analysis Of Prison Privatization In The United States And Israel, Stacey Jacovetti

Global Business Law Review

This note analyzes the constitutionality of the current state of prison privatization in the United States under the non-delegation doctrine and the due process clause. Furthermore, this note analyzes the Israeli Supreme Court's ruling holding prison privatization as unconstitutional under the Basic Law of the Right to Human Dignity and Liberty. Subsequently, an argument is made that the current authority for the utilization of private prisons in the United States is insufficient to establish the use of private prisons as constitutional. As such, this note argues that the overall scheme of privatization should provide for more detailed contracts--similar to those …

The Freedom Of Health, Abigail R. Moncrieff

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article first draws out the freedom of health from Supreme Court precedent and demonstrates that, like other substantive constitutional rights, the freedom of health is a negative liberty that must be balanced against legitimate and compelling regulatory projects. The Article then applies that understanding of the freedom to evaluate some proposed and actual health care regulations that have made headline news in the last decade. I consider the constitutionality of the phantom death panels, the HlNl vaccine distribution program, the FDA's restrictions on access to experimental drugs, PPACA's obesity and smoking regulations, and, of course, PPACA's individual mandate. Should …

Regulating White Desire, Reginald Oh

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article contends that segregationist justifications for miscegenation and segregation laws shows that those laws effectively imposed a legal duty on whites to adhere to cultural norms of endogamy. Dominant social groups enforce rules of endogamy⁠—the cultural practice of encouraging people to marry within their own social group⁠—to protect the dominant status of their individual members and of the social group in general. Thus, laws prohibiting interracial marriages regulated white desire in order to protect the dominant status of whites as a group. The Loving Court, therefore, ultimately was correct in declaring that miscegenation laws denied blacks equal protection.

Part …

Equal Protection For Homosexuals: Why The Immutability Argument Is Necessary And How It Is Met, Kari Balog

Cleveland State Law Review

The immutability factor is possibly the most disputed of the four factors of the Frontiero test, a test laid out by the Supreme Court to identify suspect classifications. Doctors and scientists have spent years studying sexual orientation, attempting to find the cause of homosexuality in order to determine whether or not sexual orientation may be changed. Unfortunately, the many studies have not provided a definitive answer to the question of immutability. This Note considers many of the psychological, hormonal, and more recent genetic studies and determines what the medical and scientific evidence means for homosexuals in their pursuit for equal …

Patriot Act Ii And Denationalization: An Unconstitutional Attempt To Revive Stripping Americans Of Their Citizenship, Nora Graham

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note will examine the rise and fall of denationalization in the United States and argue that Section 501 of Patriot Act II, which seeks to revive denationalization by amending the Immigration and Nationality Act, will be unconstitutional if passed by Congress in its present form. Part II of this Note will examine the history of denationalization in the United States. Part Ill explores in detail the proposed amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act in Section 501 of Patriot Act II that provide for a revival of denationalization. This section also discusses the potential for abuses that may result …

Striking A Balance: Finding A Place For Religious Conscience Clauses In Contraceptive Equity Legislation, Staci D. Lowell

Cleveland State Law Review

This note will attempt to address the interrelationship of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the First and Fourteenth Amendments in the context of contraceptive equity legislation. To that end, the note will examine states' definitions of a "religious employer" and make recommendations regarding statutory language that is broad enough to cover those organizations with conscientious objections to contraception but narrow enough to allow women to have ready access to contraceptive services. Following this introduction, Part II of the note will provide background information about both contraceptive equity and religious freedom. Part III will discuss current and proposed contraceptive equity legislation …

Compelled Medical Treatment Of Pregnant Women: The Balancing Of Maternal And Fetal Rights , Pamala Harris

Cleveland State Law Review

This note explores the question: is it ever permissible for a physician or a judge to compel a pregnant woman to submit to medical treatment for the benefit of her fetus? This note begins by examining the ideology of motherhood and the legal status of the fetus. This note then examines the ethical aspects and legal issues involved in compelling a pregnant woman to undergo treatment for the benefit of her fetus. This note then explores the controls of pregnancy that result in maternal-fetal conflicts. Finally, this note examines the court's use of a balancing test in reaching decisions in …

Out The Window--Prospects For The Epa And Fmla After Kimel V. Florida Board Of Regents, Brian E. Ray

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This note considers how the heightened scrutiny standard that the Court has used in gender cases under the Fourteenth Amendment will impact the congruence and proportionality test that the Court has applied in a recent series of cases examining congressional power under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The purpose of this note is twofold First it closely analyzes Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents, the Court's most recent decision concerning Section 5 and argues that the Court's analysis in Kimel indicates that a statute that involves heightened scrutiny has a much greater possibility of meeting the standards the Court …

The Abortion Right, Originalism, And The Fourteenth Amendment, Steven Graines, Justin Wyatt

Cleveland State Law Review

In this article, the Privileges or Immunities Clause will be re-conceived in its original context, at the center of the Fourteenth Amendment. This re-conception includes the assumption that The Slaughter-House Cases" were decided incorrectly.'" The contention of the article is that abortion restrictions, as a specific originalist matter, can be considered economic legislation and that they also economically burden women, such that they unconstitutionally abridge two privileges or immunities, the Lochnerian liberties to contract and the engagement in any of the common occupations. Specifically, abortion restrictions violate "the prohibition on redistributive 'class' legislation ... that was deeply rooted in the …

State Constitutional Protection Of Children With Aids And The Right To A Public Education, Jeffrey M. Croasdell

Cleveland State Law Review

The purpose of this article is to examine the problem that the American public school system is facing with respect to children with AIDS. In addition, this paper will examine how the courts are analyzing this issue and show why the current trend of analysis is weaker than it should be. Finally, this paper will look at how state constitutions are more frequently being used to protect individual rights and how the state constitutions could be used to protect the right of children with AIDS to free public education.

The Fifty-Seventh Cleveland-Marshall Lecture: The Bill Of Rights And Our Posterity, Akhil Reed Amar

Cleveland State Law Review

Inspired by our constitutional forebears, and conscious of my responsibilities to our constitutional posterity, I took pen in hand two summers ago to write a series of short essays on our Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. These essays were written for public high school students, as part of an interactive multimedia project on the Bill of Rights, designed by IBM and various consultants. My task was a daunting one: to make our Bill of Rights and Fourteenth Amendment alive and real for youngsters-to teach the "Blessings of Liberty" to "our posterity," and to invite them into the ongoing …

The Fifty-Seventh Cleveland-Marshall Lecture: The Bill Of Rights And Our Posterity, Akhil Reed Amar

Cleveland State Law Review

Inspired by our constitutional forebears, and conscious of my responsibilities to our constitutional posterity, I took pen in hand two summers ago to write a series of short essays on our Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. These essays were written for public high school students, as part of an interactive multimedia project on the Bill of Rights, designed by IBM and various consultants. My task was a daunting one: to make our Bill of Rights and Fourteenth Amendment alive and real for youngsters-to teach the "Blessings of Liberty" to "our posterity," and to invite them into the ongoing …

Section 1983 And The Parratt Doctrine After Zinermon V. Burch: Ensuring Due Process Rights Or Turning The Fourteenth Amendment Into A Font Of Tort Law, Paul F. Wingenfeld

Cleveland State Law Review

Over the last thirty years, the Court has decided a number of cases which illustrate an on-going struggle to find the proper place for section 1983 in the federal court system and, consequently, what ultimately qualifies as adequate procedural due process within the context of the statute. This note will examine the history of Court decisions involving section 1983 in order to provide the proper background for examining the Court's most recent decision in Zinermon v. Burch, a case which itself has added to an already confusing field of legal study. Within this historical background, however, the Court has actually …

Section 1983 And The Parratt Doctrine After Zinermon V. Burch: Ensuring Due Process Rights Or Turning The Fourteenth Amendment Into A Font Of Tort Law, Paul F. Wingenfeld

Cleveland State Law Review

Over the last thirty years, the Court has decided a number of cases which illustrate an on-going struggle to find the proper place for section 1983 in the federal court system and, consequently, what ultimately qualifies as adequate procedural due process within the context of the statute. This note will examine the history of Court decisions involving section 1983 in order to provide the proper background for examining the Court's most recent decision in Zinermon v. Burch, a case which itself has added to an already confusing field of legal study. Within this historical background, however, the Court has actually …

Reconstructing Section Five Of The Fourteenth Amendment To Assist Impoverished Children, James G. Wilson

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Liberal lawyers encounter grim alternatives caused by the Supreme Court's relentless shift to the right, particularly if they consider stare decisis a major constitutional value. They can attack specific decisions, demonstrating inconsistencies with prior cases, conclusory reasoning and/ or poor policy. They can use history, jurisprudence or even literature to make broad-based critiques of the Court's increasing callousness. They can propose counter-doctrine which is consistent with existing caselaw. The third response may appear quixotic, even naive, given the present Court. Nevertheless, exploration of progressive alternatives illuminates existing doctrine and provides potential openings if the Court ever decides to become more …

Reconstructing Section Five Of The Fourteenth Amendment To Assist Impoverished Children, James Wilson

Cleveland State Law Review

This article maintains that the Supreme Court's most recent affirmative action decisions, City of Richmond v. JA. Croson, Co. and Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. F.C.C. provide a surprising opportunity for the Court to offer constitutional protection to many Americans who are currently under protected, particularly to poor children. This Article will argue that the Richmond/Metro double standard is acceptable in such difficult areas as affirmative action, particularly if the Court also adopts this Article's primary proposal that the Court should sometimes permit Congress to "dilute" Supreme Court decisions. This Article shall explore this proposed doctrine of limited dilution by applying …

The Future Of Minority Set-Aside Programs After City Of Richmond, Judy Kerczewski Kranjc

Cleveland State Law Review

One type of controversial affirmative action plan is the minority set-aside program. This Note will focus on the future of these plans in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision, City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. First, an examination of the background of affirmative action leading up to set-asides is in order. Second, this Note will analyze City of Richmond and the constitutional and social issues at stake, balancing whether minority set-asides are needed with the recognition that discrimination and lack of economic opportunity for minorities still exists in our society. Finally, the Note will examine several lower …

Due Process As A Management Tool In Schools And Prisons, Elisabeth T. Dreyfuss, Jane C. Knapp

Cleveland State Law Review

This article will explore due process as an effective tool for the management of schools and prisons through a close scrutiny of the fourteenth amendment. The authors will attempt to identify emerging trends in case law and give special attention to Bell v. Wolfish, which may point to a new direction in due process analysis under the Burger Court. The purpose of this article is to propose radical reform of schools and prisons through the involvement of their populations and staffs in the rule-making process. Spawned by a firm belief that only through such democratic processes can the violence and …

Pretrial Detention And The Eighth And Fourteenth Amendments, James Lowe

Cleveland State Law Review

It is in the intent of the writer of this paper to examine the conditions endured by indigent defendants through their pretrial detention in Cuyahoga County Jail with respect to the Constitutional prohibitions of "cruel and unusual" punishment and a denial of "equal protection of the laws." Cuyahoga County is better known as Cleveland, Ohio. Expediency requires that the important concept of the rights of indigent inmates as they relate to civil rights statutes, and particularly Title 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, not be considered here. It may be hoped, however, that the propositions and legal considerations put forth in this …

Right To Counsel In Criminal Cases, Edward T. Haggins

Cleveland State Law Review

"The right to be heard would be, in many cases, of little avail if it did not comprehend the right to be heard by counsel. Even the intelligent and educated layman has small and sometimes no skill in the science of law... He requires the guiding hand of counsel at every step of the proceedings against him." These words, written in 1932 by Mr. Justice Sutherland for the majority in the famous case of Powell v. Alabama underline the fundamental right of a defendant in American criminal proceeding to have the assistance of counsel.

Freedom Of Association, William J. Hotes, Catherine H. Hotes

Cleveland State Law Review

To determine whether a limitation upon freedom of association by a state is constitutionally justified, the Court must balance the interests of those individuals whose rights have been restricted against the interests of the state involved. Constitutional freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment may be restricted only when the state has a compelling interest. A state may take action in the interest of public safety, health, or welfare to prevent abuse of the exercise of these freedoms, but it may not curtail the rights themselves. Only the public interest or a clear and present danger would justify restriction of First …

Ex Parte Deprivation Of Telephone Service To Alleged Gamblers - Police Power Vs. Constitution, Jules L. Kaufman

Cleveland State Law Review

The question is still much in a state of flux as to whether or not such regulations as Ohio Public Utilities Commission, Order No. 22,305,and actions taken thereunder, constitute an unconstitutional denial of due process. The large majority of cases, many of which have been decided by public utilities commissions, however, uphold the right of the telephone company to discontinue service summarily at the request of a law enforcement agency without the necessity of any further proof of illegal use of the equipment. With respect to the burden of proof as regards the legality or illegality of use and the …