Fourteenth Amendment Commons^™

Making Biomedical Policy Through Constitutional Adjudication:The Example Of Physician-Assisted Suicide, Carl E. Scheider

Book Chapters

Throughout most of American history no one would have supposed biomedical policy could or should be made through constitutional adjudication. No one would have thought that the Constitution spoke to biomedical issues, that those issues were questions of federal policy, or that judges were competent to handle them. Today, however, the resurgence of substantive due process has swollen the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment, the distinction between federal and state spheres is tattered, and few statutes escape judicial vetting. Furthermore, Abraham Lincoln's wish that the Constitution should "become the political religion of the nation" has been granted. "We now reverently …

Cracking The Code: "De-Coding" Colorblind Slurs During The Congressional Crack Cocaine Debates, Richard Dvorak

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This article proposes "de-coding" as a method for unveiling the racist purpose behind the enactment of race-neutral legislation. Through the use of "code words," defined as “phrases and symbols which refer indirectly to racial themes, but do not directly challenge popular democratic or egalitarian ideals,” legislators can appeal to racist sentiments without appearing racist. More importantly, they can do so without leaving evidence that can be traced back as an intent to discriminate. This article proposes to use "de-coding" as a method to unmask the racist purpose behind the enactment of the 100:1 crack versus powder cocaine ratio for mandatory …

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 American 'Legal' Dilemma: Colorblind I/Colorblind Ii--The Rules Have Changed Again: A Semantic Apothegmatic Permutation, John C. Duncan Jr

Journal Publications

"Our Constitution is colorblind" initially meant that white majority preferences could not and should not be reflected in government action. The maxim now means race should not be reflected at all in government action. The answer to racism lies somewhere between well-reasoned "blind" hope and historically-proven skepticism. Part I of this Article discusses the ideal of the colorblind society; Part II discusses what this Article deems as Colorblind I. Part III places each colorblind argument in perspective, and seeks to illustrate that the concept of colorblindness could be an ideal, but has rather become meaningless rhetoric in an endless racial …

Sovereign Immunity, Due Process, And The Alden Trilogy, Carlos Manuel Vázquez

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In Alden v. Maine, the Court held that the principle of sovereign immunity protects states from being sued without their consent in their own courts by private parties seeking damages for the states' violation of federal law. The Court thus rejected the "forum allocation" interpretation of the Eleventh Amendment, under which the Amendment serves merely to channel suits against the states based on federal law into the state courts, which are required by the Supremacy Clause to entertain such suits. The Court held instead that the Eleventh Amendment protects the states from being subjected to private damage liability by …

Section 1983 Litigation - Supreme Court Developments, Martin A. Schwartz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Race And The Right To Vote After Rice V. Cayetano, Ellen D. Katz

Articles

Last Term, the Supreme Court relied on Gomillion [v. Lightfoot] to hold that Hawaii, like Alabama before it, had segregated voters by race in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment. The state law at issue in Rice v. Cayetano provided that only "Hawaiians" could vote for the trustees of the state's Office of Hawaiian Affairs ("OHA"), a public agency that oversees programs designed to benefit the State's native people. Rice holds that restricting the OHA electorate to descendants of the 1778 inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands embodied a racial classification that effectively "fenc[ed] out whole classes of ...ci tizens from decisionmaking …

Birthright Citizenship In The United Kingdom And The United States, Michael Robert W. Houston

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The common law concept of territorial birthright citizenship is the foundation for the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause, which confers citizenship on those born within the United States and "subject" to its "jurisdiction." Likewise territorial underpinnings were the basis for over 375 years of birthright citizenship within the United Kingdom. Contemporary discourse with respect to territorial birthright citizenship, however, has shifted from its common law basis and now focuses on whether citizenship ought to inhere in children born to illegal immigrants. In the United Kingdom, the British Nationality Act of 1981 abandoned territorial birthright citizenship in favor of parentage based citizenship. …

Equal Protection, Rational Basis Review, And The Impact Of Cleburne Living Center, Inc., Richard B. Saphire

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Angry White Males: The Equal Protection Clause And "Classes Of One", Timothy Zick

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

An Essay On Texas V. Lesage, Christina B. Whitman

Articles

When I was invited to participate in this symposium, I was asked to discuss whether the causation defense developed in Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle applied to cases challenging state action under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. As I argue below, it seems clear that Mt. Healthy does apply to equal protection cases. The Supreme Court explicitly so held last November in Texas v. Lesage. But the implications of Lesage go beyond questions of causation. The opinion suggests that the Court may be rethinking (or ignoring) its promise in Carey v. Piphus …

Ending Male Privilege: Beyond The Reasonable Woman, Stephanie M. Wildman

Michigan Law Review

A Law of Her Own: The Reasonable Woman as a Measure of Man by Caroline A. Forell and Donna M. Matthews aspires to provide a solution for an enigmatic jurisprudential problem - the systemic failure of the legal order to recognize and to redress the injuries that women experience. Feminist scholars have agreed that, for women, the legal separation of public and private spheres often insulates from legal review behavior that harms women. But even in the so-called public sphere, women suffer harms that remain invisible and unnamed. The authors identify four legal arenas in which the "spectrum of violence …

Writing Off Race, Girardeau A. Spann

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The constitutionality of affirmative action has now become one of the central topics in the politics of race. Ironically, the United States Constitution says absolutely nothing about affirmative action. The text never mentions the term, and the equal protection language in the Fourteenth Amendment simply begs the question of whether equality requires or precludes the use of affirmative action. The intent of the Framers is similarly unhelpful. We know that the drafters of the Fifth Amendment owned slaves, and the drafters of the Fourteenth Amendment envisioned a racially stratified society. But the Fourteenth Amendment was itself an affirmative action measure, …

Public School Officials' Use Of Physical Force As A Fourth Amendment Seizure: Protecting Students From The Constitutional Chasm Between The Fourth And Fourteenth Amendments, Kathryn R. Urbonya

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Wrong Vampire, Garrett Epps

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Facing Facts: Only A Constitutional Amendment Can Guarantee Religious Freedom For All, Michael P. Farris

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Fidelity, Economic Liberty, And 1937, Editors Of The William And Mary Law Review

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Fragmented Liberty Clause, Rebecca L. Brown

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lochner, Parity, And The Chinese Laundry Cases, David E. Bernstein

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lost Fidelities, Barry Cushman

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Reaffirmation Of Proportionality Analysis Under Section 5 Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Marci A. Hamilton, David Schoenbrod

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Inevitable Infidelities Of Constitutional Translation: The Case Of The New Deal, John O. Mcginnis

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Inevitable Infidelities Of Constitutional Translation: The Case Of The New Deal, John O. Mcginnis

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Fiscal Powers And The 1930s: Entrenchment, John Harrison

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

United States V. Morrison, Et Al.: Brief Of Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners, Evan H. Caminker, Catharine A. Mackinnon, Christina B. Whitman

Appellate Briefs

Interests of the Amici Curiae: This case brings into play two of our basic constitutional commitments: first, to a federal system that both guarantees the States a major role and gives Congress broad responsibility over interstate commerce, and second, to a nationwide guarantee that all persons enjoy the equal protection of the laws. Amici, law professors (identified in an addendum below) who teach and write about constitutional law, the federal courts or jurisprudence, will discuss how the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) civil rights remedy is an apt response to the combined demands of these constitutional commitments.

In 1994, …

Beyond "Harm": Abandoning The Actual Injury Standard For Certain Prohibited Takings Under The Endangered Species Act By Giving Independent Meaning To "Harassment", Alicia M. Griffin

Vanderbilt Law Review

As new technology and a desire for progress propel us into the next millennium, a corresponding daily depletion of national and worldwide wildlife resources perpetuates the frightening biological problem of species extinction, resulting in "irreplaceable losses" to medicine, science, ecology, and aesthetics. Every species is a part of the intricate and complicated ecosystem; its stability depends on the continued existence of each of its components. Each black-footed ferret, blue whale, and red wolf contributes to the delicate "balance of nature," a state of ecology that must be maintained for humans to survive. Indeed, scientists have derived much-needed knowledge from other …

Multivocal Prejudices And Homo Equality, William N. Eskridge

Indiana Law Journal

Addison C. Harris Lecture, October 27, 1998, Indiana University Law School.

Difficult Maneuvers In Discourse Against Latina Immigrants In The United States, Josh Price

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article critiques the tendency to homogenize violence against women, emphasizing the importance of recognizing its diverse forms and contexts. It focuses on the experiences of immigrant Latinas, particularly those in abusive relationships, and explores how legal, cultural, and ideological factors uniquely constrain their options. By examining the work of a Latina activist, the analysis highlights the need to address the intersection of gender, immigration, and domestic violence through a more nuanced lens. The article advocates for structural changes to empower immigrant women and challenge the existing legal and cultural frameworks that perpetuate their subjugation.

Ramdass V. Angelone 187 F.3d 396 (4th Cir. 1999)

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.

Weeks V. Angelone 176 F.3d 249 (4th Cir. 1999)

Capital Defense Journal

No abstract provided.