Fourteenth Amendment Commons^™

Obscenity -- Federal Statutes Prohibiting Importation And Mail Distribution Of Obscene Materials Do Not Violate First Amendment, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Near the end of the 1970-71 term, the Supreme Court considered two cases, United States v. Reidell and United States v. Thirty-Seven (37) Photographs, in which constitutional challenges were raised against federal statutes regulating the distribution and importation of obscene materials. These challenges were engendered by the apparent irreconcilability of the Court's decisions in Roth v. United States and Stanley v. Georgia. In Roth, the Court held that obscenity is not within the scope of first amendment protection for speech and press. In Stanley, however, a first amendment right to possess obscene materials in one's home was recognized, and the …

Equal Protection--Defacto Racio-Economic Classifications Not Constitutionally Suspect, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

The fourteenth amendment's prohibition that "no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws has long been held to require not only that each person be afforded a "fair" administration of state statutory commands, but also that the laws themselves be "equal."' This requirement of equal laws, however, has not been interpreted to mean that statutes must apply uniformly to all persons; rather the courts have held that legislatures may fashion laws that affect separate classes of persons unequally, as long as the classifi- cations involved are reasonable. While this judicial standard of …

Book Reviews, Stanley D. Rose, Robert M. Anderson, Robert J. Harris, Harry Holloway, Robert L. Birmingham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Cardozo and Frontiers of Legal Thinking By Beryl Harold Levy Cleveland: The Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1969.Pp. xi, 365. $9.95.

reviewer: Stanley D. Rose

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City Politics and Planning By Francine F. Rabinovitz New York: Atherton Press, Inc. 1969. Pp. 192. $6.95

reviewer: Robert M. Anderson

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Everyman's Constitution: Historical Essays on the Fourteenth Amendment, the "Conspiracy Theory," and American Constitutionalism By Howard Jay Graham Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1968. Pp. xiv, 631. $12.95

reviewer: Robert J. Harris

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The Impact of Negro Voting: The Role of the Vote in the Quest for Equality By William …

The Warren Court: Completion Of A Constitutional Revolution, William F. Swindler

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the final weeks of its sixteen year history, the subject matter of the Warren Court's opinions ranged over most of the major constitutional issues with which it had concerned itself since 1953, and out of which it developed the seminal decisions for which it will be remembered. For example, it upheld an Alabama desegregation plan which provided for proportional racial representation on public school faculties,' and found a snack bar in a privately owned recreational facility to be within the "public accomodations" definition of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It rejected a North Carolina county's request to reinstate …

The Legal Philosophy Of John Marshall, Douglas A. Poe

Vanderbilt Law Review

One of the greatest and most significant constitutional enigmas with which the Supreme Court has grappled during the past two decades has concerned the proper delineation of the first amendment's prohibition against the abridgment of "the freedom of speech." The range of problems confronted has extended from congressional investigations to state obscenity laws, from sit-in demonstrations to the provision of legal counsel by labor unions for their members. An all-encompassing and consistent theory of the first and fourteenth amendments has yet to be articulated by the Court, a situation which is hardly unexpected in view of the disparate claims asserted …

Sex Discrimination In Employment Under Title Vii Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Anthony R. Mansfield

Vanderbilt Law Review

On July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964,' the most far-reaching civil rights legislation in history.Much has been written about the act, but almost without exception the writers have been concerned with the ban of discrimination in employment on the basis of race or color. But the most radical and troublesome characteristic of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is its outlawing of employment discrimination based on sex. It is the purpose of this note to examine this largely ignored aspect of the act. The inquiry will first examine the regulation of …

Federal Double Jeopardy Policy, Jay A. Sigler

Vanderbilt Law Review

The fifth amendment provision against double jeopardy is one of the basic protections afforded defendants by the United States Constitution. Its roots are found in early common law,' and the policies which it represents have been gradually defined by federal courts to meet various situations of inequality in the position of a criminal defendant confronted by federal prosecuting attorneys. Presently the double jeopardy provision is not incorporated by the fourteenth amendment as a restriction upon state action, but this condition may not prevail much longer. Should double jeopardy become incorporated into the "due process" clause of the fourteenth amendment, states …

Justice Brewer And Substantive Due Process: A Conservative Court Revisited, Robert E. Gamer

Vanderbilt Law Review

From the heat of ideological battle which has accompanied the emergence of America into the status of a capitalistic society, late nineteenth century conservatives have emerged in many circles with a reputation for being selfish, profit-hungry individuals attempting to hide their rapacity under a cloak of pleasant platitudes and private charity. In addition to falling under this less-than-favorable shadow, those of this breed who presumably came to cluster about the Supreme Court of the United States have been attacked by liberals for subverting the Constitution of the United States into an instrument to serve the acquisitive interests of the capitalists …

The Waite Court And The Fourteenth Amendment, Howard J. Graham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Underscoring so much while leaving so much unsaid, this book is a powerful plea for post-1937 trends and constructions--not merely in the Supreme Court, but now in Congress. How does the nation, the Court, the Congress, make good a lost century? Chief Justice Waite's triumph--decidedly more modest in my estimation than in Dr. Magrath's--was that he dared, tried, succeeded--at least by half. The country's failure was that it so long did not--has not yet--even by half. Twenty years and three constitutional amendments after emancipation too many of our forebears, including all members of this Court except the former Union colonel …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--PRE-EMPTION--FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 1934 DOES NOT INVALIDATE STATE WIRETAPPING STATUTE

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW--SCHOOLS--UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF STATUTE REQUIRING BIBLE READING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

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CRIMINAL LAW--BRIBERY--OFFER TO GIVE MONEY TO CONGRESSMAN'S POLITICAL PARTY

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CRIMINAL LAW--CONFESSIONS--REQUIREMENT OF CORROBORATION OF EXTRAJUDICIAL CONFESSION

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EVIDENCE--EXPERT TESTIMONY--INADMISSIBILITY OF EXPERT TESTIMONY THAT A NARCOTIC ADDICT IS UNWORTHY OF BELIEF

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FEDERAL RULES CIVIL PROCEDURE--DECLARATORY JUDGMENTS--RIGHT OF COUNTERCLAIMING DEFENDANT TO TRIAL BY JURY

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PROFESSION OF LAW--UNAUTHORIZED PRACTICE--CORPORATION MAY ENGAGE IN ACTIVITIES CONSTITUTING PRACTICE OF LAW IF SUCH ACTIVITIES ARE INCIDENTAL TO ITS PRINCIPAL BUSINESS

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STATE AND LOCAL TAXATION--INVALID ASSESSMENTS-JUDICIAL REVIEW AFTER FAILURE TO …

The Supreme Court And Obscenity, Philip M. Carden

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Supreme Court of the United States has now made binding law of its oft-repeated dictum that obscenity is beyond the pale of constitutionally protected free expression. After being spared-or avoiding-the necessity of ruling squarely on the constitutional status of obscene matter for 169 years, the Court addressed itself to virtually every aspect of the whole slippery problem in a single year. The Court disposed of seven obscene publication cases' in the twelvemonths through January, 1958. These included three reversals this term in memorandum decisions merely citing the major opinion of the series, which was handed down in the combined …

The School Segregation Cases: A Comment, Paul H. Sanders

Vanderbilt Law Review

Segregation in the public schools on the basis of race or color pursuant to law has been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States.' Such segregation, the Court says, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The unanimous opinions of the Court delivered by Chief Justice Warren, declare this to be so regardless of the "equality" of the "tangible factors" in such educational facilities. This action, of paramount significance during the term just ended, will have a sequel of …

Recent Constitutional Developments On Eminent Domain, John L. Bowers Jr., J. L. Boren Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although the provisions of both state and federal law that cruel and unusual punishments shill not be imposed are considered popularly to relate only to those punishments which exist solely in the books, the provisions are not useless today. Recent cases have shown a tendency to expand the scope of the prohibition, especially with regard to excessive punishment, and to incorporate the proscription within the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. As respect, that which likely will be deemed cruel and unusual, little can be done beyond noting those situations in which the limitation has been applied. If a generalization …

A Modern Supreme Court In A Modern World, Charles F. Curtis

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is all very well, indeed it is very good, to bear down on the fact that the author of the Constitution was, and still is, "We the People of the United States." But there is more sentiment than explanation in it. We think too much about who is the author of the Constitution. Of course it was not the Convention of 1789, nor the First Congress which wrote the Bill of Rights, nor the Thirty-Ninth which wrote the Fourteenth Amendment. It was We the People, but even when we have recognized this, all we have done is recognize that …

Segregation And The Fourteenth Amendment, J. D. Hyman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Sociologists have rejected the old concept, enshrined in William Graham Sumner's Folkways, published in 1906, that law must come from the mores, and cannot go beyond them. It is now generally accepted that legal action, within limits, can influence ways of living. Dramatic demonstrations of the validity of the present concepts have been furnished by the extension of negro suffrage in the South and by the enlargement of federal protection of bodily security under the drive of Supreme Court decisions broadening the reach of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Equally important are the current steps to destroy the pattern of …

The Supreme Court And Civil Liberties, Paul A. Freund

Vanderbilt Law Review

The evolution of the enforcement of First Amendment guarantees under the aegis of the Fourteenth is an interesting study in the throwing up of bridges before and the burning of them behind, characteristic of juridical-advance. The protection of property and of liberty of contract had long since been assured under decisions applying'the Fourteenth Amendment. The interests of a teacher and of a private school, challenging interference with their pursuits, were well calculated to furnish the span between proprietary and forensic rights. When the span was crossed the newly taken ground provided a new base for advance. Freedom of speech, recognized …