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Seattle University School of Law

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Articles 301 - 329 of 329

Full-Text Articles in Law and Politics

Protecting The Polity: Strategies For Reform, Dana Gold, Solange Bitol-Hansen, Charlie Cray, Bruce Freed Jan 2007

Protecting The Polity: Strategies For Reform, Dana Gold, Solange Bitol-Hansen, Charlie Cray, Bruce Freed

Seattle University Law Review

This session is Protecting the Polity: Strategies for Reform, and we frame this as additional strategies that are actually percolating in a concrete way out in the real world, not just in the world of academic theory, to promote citizen participation in a democracy that countenances corporate influence in the political process.

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Corporations And Political Speech: Should Speech Equal Money?, David Skover, Lisa Danetz, Martin Redish, Scott Thomas Jan 2007

Corporations And Political Speech: Should Speech Equal Money?, David Skover, Lisa Danetz, Martin Redish, Scott Thomas

Seattle University Law Review

Welcome now to the panel on corporations and political speech. We will explore the First Amendment jurisprudence of campaign finance regulation and some of the more controversial issues raised by corporate involvement in the marketplace of political ideas and elections.

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The Constitutional And Statutory Framework Organizing The Office Of The United States Attorney, Christian M. Halliburton Jan 2007

The Constitutional And Statutory Framework Organizing The Office Of The United States Attorney, Christian M. Halliburton

Seattle University Law Review

The U.S. Attorney position is one characterized by a broad delegation of the duty to enforce the laws of the United States, and to appear on behalf of the government in any civil action involving the United States or its revenues. This delegation of duties necessarily entails the exercise of discretion, and that exercise of discretion necessarily depends on the United States Attorneys' independence of judgment. The U.S. Attorney can thus be described as an agent with multiple principles, or a servant of two masters: the U.S. Attorneys clearly serve at the "pleasure" of the President, must be responsive to …

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Train Wreck At The Justice Department: An Eyewitness Account, John Mckay Jan 2007

Train Wreck At The Justice Department: An Eyewitness Account, John Mckay

Seattle University Law Review

In a series of early morning phone calls on December 7, 2006, seven United States Attorneys were ordered to resign. Despite initial denials, it would later be revealed that two other U.S. Attorneys had also been ordered to submit their resignations, bringing the total number to nine. Each was given no explanation for the dismissal and most were led to believe that they alone were being dismissed, raising the specter of unstated wrongdoing and encouraging silent departures. Those dismissed uniformly cited the maxim that they "served at the pleasure of the President" and most sought to avoid publicly disputing the …

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The U.S. Attorney Firings Of 2006: Main Justice's Centralization Efforts In Historical Context, James Eisenstein Jan 2007

The U.S. Attorney Firings Of 2006: Main Justice's Centralization Efforts In Historical Context, James Eisenstein

Seattle University Law Review

The media, the political establishment, and the federal criminal jus-community's focus on the compelling story of the firings is hardly surprising. The details emerged over a period of many months through leaks, internal Department of Justice (DOJ) emails, press releases, interviews, and dramatic congressional testimony. The media's focus on the firings obscured their deeper significance with regard to the nature of the relations between the DOJ and its ninety-three United States Attorneys' Offices (USAOs). This Article addresses this omission by looking at the consequences of these events for the balance struck between central control by Main Justice in Washington and …

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The Contract Thesis Of The Federal Spending Power, David Engdahl Jan 2007

The Contract Thesis Of The Federal Spending Power, David Engdahl

Faculty Articles

This article focuses on the inherent similarities between spending power and contract law, and elaborates on Congress’s ability to “contract” with the States, to have States consent to laws beyond Congress’s enumerated powers with federal funding as consideration. A majority of the federal budget is currently spent on social security, social and economic assistance, education, and other aid and development programs. This “contract” thesis permits our system to maintain the virtues of enumerated federal powers. This analogy might suggest a limited role for private parties in enforcing their terms. The article is offered as an illustration for how legal scholarship …

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Keynote Speech, Mark Crispin Miller Jan 2007

Keynote Speech, Mark Crispin Miller

Seattle University Law Review

Corporations tend to work against immediate contact. They tend to discourage familial bonds and popular interaction. They are allergic to democracy. Because corporations are usually in the business of selling deviations of various kinds, they tend to want a world in which each one of us is completely walled off in a portable, wonderful land of communication technology. Corporations want a world where everything is done for us. A world where everything is presented to us through a corporate medium, so that what once looked like satire is now commonly represented as an admirable ideal. To that end, I am …

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Live And Learn: Depoliticizing The Interim Appointments Of U.S. Attorneys, Laurie L. Levenson Jan 2007

Live And Learn: Depoliticizing The Interim Appointments Of U.S. Attorneys, Laurie L. Levenson

Seattle University Law Review

Following the U.S. Attorney purge of 2006-2007, it is time to reassess the approach used to appoint interim U.S. Attorneys. Recent events have taught us how quickly U.S. Attorneys can become political pawns. Indeed, this scandal has jeopardized the credibility of federal prosecutors, disillusioned career prosecutors in those positions, and called into question the separation between professionalism and politics in the enforcement of our federal laws. To restore confidence in U.S. Attorneys Offices, a reexamination of the interim appointment process is critical so that the mistakes of 2006 are not repeated.

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Stomaching The Burden Of Dietary Supplement Safety: The Need To Shift The Burden Of Proof Under The Dietary Supplement Health And Education Act Of 1994, Morgan J. Wais Jan 2005

Stomaching The Burden Of Dietary Supplement Safety: The Need To Shift The Burden Of Proof Under The Dietary Supplement Health And Education Act Of 1994, Morgan J. Wais

Seattle University Law Review

This article gives a brief historical perspective on dietary supplement regulation and discusses the evolution of drug regulation by the FDA. Part II concludes with a discussion of the political environment in which these regulations occur. Part III gives examples and show how the current system has caused injury and harm to consumers of dietary supplements. Part IV discusses the current burden of proof and how it was applied in the case of ephedra. Part V discusses how, under the current regulatory structure, consumers cannot be adequately protected, either by the FDA or the tort system. Part VI discusses the …

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Internet Voting With Initiatives And Referendums: Stumbling Towards Direct Democracy, Rebekah K. Browder Jan 2005

Internet Voting With Initiatives And Referendums: Stumbling Towards Direct Democracy, Rebekah K. Browder

Seattle University Law Review

Imagine that it is Tuesday, November 4, 2008, and you realize that you have not yet voted for the candidate that you want to be President of the United States. The polls close at 7 p.m., and it is already 6:45 p.m. Instead of rushing off to the nearest polling place, you simply go to your computer, log in, fill out a ballot, and email your ballot to your designated polling website. The whole process takes fewer than ten minutes, and you have done your civic duty. Leading proponents of Internet voting point to five possible benefits of electronic voting: …

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Partisanship Redefined: Why Blanket Primaries Are Constitutional, Deidra A. Foster Jan 2005

Partisanship Redefined: Why Blanket Primaries Are Constitutional, Deidra A. Foster

Seattle University Law Review

In 2003, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rendered a decision that would pave the way for drastic changes in Washington State's election process. In Democratic Party of Washington v. Reed, the court held that Washington's nearly seventy-year-old blanket primary was unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court declined to review the case. The Ninth Circuit professed to be bound by California Democratic Party v. Jones, the Supreme Court case that ruled California's blanket primary unconstitutional just three years earlier, ignoring the argument that Washington's blanket primary differed materially from California's. What followed was a melee of voter disapproval and …

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Voting Rights At A Crossroads: Return To The Past Or An Opportunity For The Future, Barbara Arnwine Jan 2005

Voting Rights At A Crossroads: Return To The Past Or An Opportunity For The Future, Barbara Arnwine

Seattle University Law Review

This keynote address for the 2005 Symposium: Where's My Vote? Lessons Learned from Washington State's Gubernatorial Election was presented by Barbara Arnwine. The focus of the presentation was on "Voting Rights at a Crossroad: Return to the Past or an Opportunity for the Future?" To students who are on the career path to becoming practitioners of law, and to attorneys and law professors, no role is more important than enhancing democracy. Ms. Arnwine's speech addresses the topics of voting rights from a national perspective highlighting the most pressing challenges. In addressing this theme, four areas of voting rights are covered …

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The Washington 2004 Gubernatorial Election Crisis: The Necessity Of Restoring Public Confidence In The Electoral Process, Joaquin G. Avila Jan 2005

The Washington 2004 Gubernatorial Election Crisis: The Necessity Of Restoring Public Confidence In The Electoral Process, Joaquin G. Avila

Seattle University Law Review

This Article details the plethora of problems associated with Washington State's 2004 gubernatorial election and explores the proposed electoral reforms in light of prior threats to the electoral process. The Article postulates that electoral reforms in the administration of elections also present an important opportunity to provide minority communities with greater access to the political process. Part II of this Article begins with a history ofvoting discrimination in the United States. This history provides a context to the 2004 gubernatorial election in Washington. In addition, this history provides an important background context for assessing whether reforms in the administration of …

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Death By A Thousand Signatures: The Rise Of Restrictive Ballot Access Laws And The Decline Of Electoral Competition In The United States, Oliver Hall Jan 2005

Death By A Thousand Signatures: The Rise Of Restrictive Ballot Access Laws And The Decline Of Electoral Competition In The United States, Oliver Hall

Seattle University Law Review

This Article explores one instance of the countermajoritarian problem in American democracy: how to protect the rights of minor parties and independent candidates participating in an electoral system dominated by two major parties. In particular, this Article focuses on the effect of modern ballot access laws on candidates' rights, arguing that courts ought to treat these laws as a presumptively impermissible form of "collusion in restraint of democracy." Although the article borrows the language of antitrust law, this argument is rooted in core constitutional principles and rights guaranteed under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Nevertheless, the analogy to antitrust law …

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The Flatow Amendment And State-Sponsored Terrorism, Joseph Keller Jan 2005

The Flatow Amendment And State-Sponsored Terrorism, Joseph Keller

Seattle University Law Review

This article argues that the Flatow Amendment does not provide a cause of action against a foreign state itself and, further, that judicial consultation of the State Department is appropriate and desirable in cases affecting foreign policy, such as those requiring interpretation of the Flatow Amendment. Part I analyzes early judicial interpretation of the Flatow Amendment, examine and critique the methodology of Cronin and its progeny, explain application of the Charming Betsy principle to this line of cases, and conclude that the Flatow Amendment provides a cause of action against the officials, employees, or agents of a foreign state, but …

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Competing Values Or False Choices: Coming To Consensus On The Election Reform Debate In Washington State And The Country, Tova Andrea Wang Jan 2005

Competing Values Or False Choices: Coming To Consensus On The Election Reform Debate In Washington State And The Country, Tova Andrea Wang

Seattle University Law Review

This Article examines the problems revealed in Washington State's election system as a result of its staggeringly close gubernatorial election, and compares such problems to those encountered by other states in the 2004 election. It examines the challenge of fixing these problems through the prism of the ongoing debate over what values and goals are most important when making election administration decisions. The various values and goals of expanding voter access, increasing voter participation and election efficiency, preventing voter fraud, ensuring the count of every vote, and creating finality in the voting system are included in this examination. Throughout this …

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Linking Low-Income Washingtonians With Health Care Financing Arrangements, Kenneth R. Wing, Michael G. Gordie Jan 2003

Linking Low-Income Washingtonians With Health Care Financing Arrangements, Kenneth R. Wing, Michael G. Gordie

Seattle University Law Review

Following this introductory section, Part II presents a comprehensive description of the health financing arrangements available to low-income residents of Washington State, from federally funded Medicaid programs to state-subsidized insurance. The Article concludes in Part III, outlining the interrelationship between these arrangements and the political process, and suggesting that the Washington State Legislature should be aware of how policy actually affects people.

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Initiatives—Enemy Of The Republic, Brewster C. Denny Jan 2001

Initiatives—Enemy Of The Republic, Brewster C. Denny

Seattle University Law Review

The Seattle University Law Review's Symposium on the initiative process in Washington State addresses an issue of both transcendent importance to the health of the Republic and immediate challenge to the welfare of the children of this state. This discussion could not be more timely, and not just locally. Here's why. Devolution, tax cuts for the rich and the super rich, welfare reform, and a more conservative, market-oriented philosophy of government lay on the states and low income parents and children the burden of meeting the most critical needs of children-from prenatal care through college. With twenty percent of our …

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Blind Faith And Reasonable Doubts: Investigating Beliefs In The Rule Of Law, Jessie Allen Jan 2001

Blind Faith And Reasonable Doubts: Investigating Beliefs In The Rule Of Law, Jessie Allen

Seattle University Law Review

The article explores the meaning of the rule of law within the American political and legal systems by analyzing the concept in the abstract and its application in President Clinton’s impeachment.

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Direct Democracy Is Not Republican Government, Steven William Marlowe Jan 2001

Direct Democracy Is Not Republican Government, Steven William Marlowe

Seattle University Law Review

This Article will initially explain the examples of direct democracy in the states of Washington and Oregon. It will then analyze the United States Constitution's Guarantee Clause. Finally, this Article will argue that state initiative and referendum provisions are inconsistent with a republican form of government and that laws passed through the use of this process are unconstitutional.

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Telford: Casting Sunlight On Shadow Governments—Limits To The Delegation Of Government Power To Associations Of Officials And Agencies , Leslie L. Marshall Jan 2000

Telford: Casting Sunlight On Shadow Governments—Limits To The Delegation Of Government Power To Associations Of Officials And Agencies , Leslie L. Marshall

Seattle University Law Review

This Note engages in three areas of analysis. Part II reviews the case of Telford v. Thurston County Board of Commissioner, which, for the first time in Washington State, confronted the issue of whether associations of state officials or agencies are the equivalent of agencies for purposes of the state Public Disclosure Act. Part III examines the broader implications of Telford: (1) whether the principles in Telford should be applied to other state safeguards and restrictions on government agencies, such as the state Open Public Meetings Act, (2) whether the constitutional requirement of one-person-one-vote should be applied to associations of …

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The Implications Of National Security Safeguards On The Commercialization Of Remote Sensing Imagery, Youssef Sneifer Jan 1996

The Implications Of National Security Safeguards On The Commercialization Of Remote Sensing Imagery, Youssef Sneifer

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment offers a critique of the national security restrictions contained in the United States policy and regulations and the uncertainty they inject into the commercialization of remote sensing imagery. After providing a brief technical description of remote sensing technology and the market realities associated with remote sensing imagery, this Comment analyzes the legislation and regulations affecting the private sector's commercialization and dissemination of remote sensing imagery with a special emphasis on national security concerns. Specifically, it reviews the Clinton Administration's policy with regard to the commercialization of remote sensing imagery, tracing its origins to the international obligations of the …

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Doubting Thomas: Confirmation Veracity Meets Performance Reality, Joyce A. Baugh, Christopher E. Smith Jan 1996

Doubting Thomas: Confirmation Veracity Meets Performance Reality, Joyce A. Baugh, Christopher E. Smith

Seattle University Law Review

At the close of the United States Supreme Court's 1994 term, Justice Clarence Thomas became the center of news media attention for his important role as a prominent member of the Court's resurgent conservative bloc. More frequently than in past terms, Thomas's opinions articulated the conservative position for his fellow Justices. According to one report, "The newly energized Thomas has shown little hesitancy this term in leading the conservative charge. Another article referred to Thomas's "full-throated emergence as a distinctive and articulate judicial voice." Thomas's new prominence, assertiveness, and visibility have been attributed to his emergence from the shadows of …

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Direct Democracy: The Right Of The People To Make Fools Of Themselves; The Use And Abuse Of Initiative And Referendum, A Local Government Perspective, Daniel M. Warner Jan 1995

Direct Democracy: The Right Of The People To Make Fools Of Themselves; The Use And Abuse Of Initiative And Referendum, A Local Government Perspective, Daniel M. Warner

Seattle University Law Review

The Framers of the United States Constitution did not embrace direct, populist democracy. They rejected the Swiss model of direct legislation' and chose a system of representative-republican, not democratic-government that would, as James Madison wrote, "enlarge the public views by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial [partisan] considerations." Representative democracy presumes that an informed electorate will choose wise legislators. Direct democracy, by extension, demands that citizens …

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Toward Meaningful Judicial Elections: A Case For Reform Of Canon 7, Michele Radosevich Jan 1993

Toward Meaningful Judicial Elections: A Case For Reform Of Canon 7, Michele Radosevich

Seattle University Law Review

This Comment argues that elections can give us good judges who are both accountable to the voters and able to decide cases impartially. To accomplish this, we must, in the words of one local media commentator, “take off the muzzle and allow judges to discuss issues.” But before one can propose change, one should understand the present system and the purposes it was designed to serve. Part II of this Comment examines Canon 7 of the Washington Code of Judicial Conduct and the balance it strikes between accountability and impartiality. Part III explores how the Canon has been interpreted in …

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The Right To Health Care In The United States, Ken Wing Jan 1993

The Right To Health Care In The United States, Ken Wing

Faculty Articles

This article provides an analysis of the history of constitutional interpretation in the United States, and reveals that any right Americans have to health care is a political rather than constitutional right.

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Washington's Partial Veto Power: Judicial Construction Of Article Iii, Section 12, Heidi A. Irvin Jan 1987

Washington's Partial Veto Power: Judicial Construction Of Article Iii, Section 12, Heidi A. Irvin

Seattle University Law Review

This Note recommends that the separate subject test employed by Washington courts in reviewing the constitutional validity of partial vetoes be abandoned like the affirmative-negative test before it. In the alternative, the Constitution should be amended to remove any perceived need for a subjective judicial test. As a last-choice solution to the problem of uncertainty and inefficiency in the legislative process, the legislature should use its override powers more extensively.

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Political Parties Before The Bar: The Controversy Over Associational Rights, Gary L. Scott, Craig L. Carr Jan 1982

Political Parties Before The Bar: The Controversy Over Associational Rights, Gary L. Scott, Craig L. Carr

Seattle University Law Review

This article will discuss the scope and nature of constitutional protection to be afforded political party autonomy by the first and fourteenth amendments. The purpose of the present discussion is to review both legal and political sides of this question. Once this is done it will become clear that a party right to protected autonomy during the candidate selection process is not only founded upon solid constitutional ground but is also in keeping with sound political wisdom.

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The Unconstitutionality Of Limitations Upon Donations To Political Committees In The 1976 Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments, David Skover Jan 1977

The Unconstitutionality Of Limitations Upon Donations To Political Committees In The 1976 Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments, David Skover

Faculty Articles

The Supreme Court's decision in Buckley v. Valeo partially dismantled the electoral reform program formulated in the 1974 Amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. The Court declared that the Act's limitations on expenditures by candidates and independent expenditures in federal elections unconstitutionally burdened political speech and association, while it upheld restrictions on contributions to candidates. After five months of deliberation, Congress attempted to salvage its design for electoral reform by enacting the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1976. Responding to Buckley's approval of restrictions on political contributions, Congress imposed new limits on "contributions" to political committees. …

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