Law and Politics Commons^™

Plebiscites, Participation, And Collective Action In Local Government Law, Clayton P. Gillette

Michigan Law Review

Participation is again in the air. Apparently fueled by current debates concerning decentralized power and republican versus pluralist traditions in our political and legal theory, those concerned with political decisionmaking have turned their attention to calls for increased public involvement in the process. As has been true in the past, the objectives of those who advocate increased participation are by no means uniform. Some stress the positive effects that broad participation would have on individual participants. The primary function of participation in these accounts lies in its educative value, its capacity to produce a more informed, hence more self-sufficient, citizenry. …

A Job For The Judges: The Judiciary And The Constitution In A Massive And Complex Society, Neil K. Komesar

Michigan Law Review

This article attempts that task by exploring the elements of institutional choice in constitutional law. Part I takes an overview of the general division of decisionmaking responsibility between the political processes and the courts. It also examines the failures of existing theories to take account of this division of responsibility. Part II identifies two theories of political malfunction - those circumstances in which political processes are subject to significant doubt or distrust and, therefore, prime candidates for judicial review. Part III examines the characteristics - limits, biases, and abilities - of the judiciary and the potential for judicial response to …

Storm Center: The Supreme Court In American Politics, Nelson P. Miller

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics by David M. O'Brien

Constituting Communities Through Words That Bind: Reflections On Loyalty Oaths, Sanford Levinson

Michigan Law Review

Preparation of this essay has not served to resolve my own ambivalences about what, after all, Duncan Kennedy once named the "fundamental contradiction" of all social life, the tension between "individual freedom" and the coercive communal life with "[o]thers (family, friends, bureaucrats, cultural figures, the state)" that is "necessary if we are to become persons at all - they provide us the stuff of our selves and protect us ,in crucial ways against destruction." It should not be surprising if something so fundamental does not prove amenable to resolution. In any case, the reader should not expect to find a …

Bakke & The Politics Of Equality, Paul V. Timmins

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Bakke & the Politics of Equality by Timothy J. O'Neill

Judge Picking, Abner J. Mikva

Michigan Law Review

A Review of God Save This Honorable Court: How the Choice of Supreme Court Justices Shapes Our History by Laurence H. Tribe

A Comment On Religious Convictions And Lawmaking, John H. Garvey

Michigan Law Review

Professor Kent Greenawalt's Cooley Lectures on Religious Convictions and Lawmaking are fresh, honest, and thoughtful. They offer some troubling questions for liberal democratic theorists (Greenawalt names Bruce Ackerman and John Rawls as representatives of the class) who argue that good citizens and officials should set their religious co~victions aside when they deal with political questions. Greenawalt contends that religious liberal democrats are not committed to such a program of self-denial - that sometimes (though not always) political judgments can rest on religious convictions. I think he is right but too modest about the implications of his thesis.

Religious Convictions And Lawmaking, Kent Greenawalt

Michigan Law Review

In Part I, I introduce the subject of liberal democracy, rationality, and religion. I explain briefly why this subject merits our attention. I then indicate variant positions about it and my own summary conclusions. I develop a partial model of our liberal democracy from which the issue can be addressed in context. I next consider two kinds of concrete social issues, consenting sexual acts among adults and the protection of animals and the natural environment. During this treatment I indicate more fully how religious convictions affect judgments about desirable laws, and I analyze the claim that good citizens should not …

Regulating Campaign Activity: The New Road To Contradiction?, Sanford Levinson

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Politics and Money: The New Road to Corruption by Elizabeth Drew

Policymaking And Politics In The Federal District Courts, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Policymaking and Politics in the Federal District Courts by Robert A. Carp and C.K. Rowland

Impeachment In America, 1635-1805, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Impeachment in America, 1635-1805 by Peter Charles Hoffer and N.E.H. Hull

Toward Increased Judicial Activism: The Political Role Of The Supreme Court, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Toward Increased Judicial Activism: The Political Role of the Supreme Court by Arthur Selwyn Miller

Abortion, Politics, And The Courts: Roe V. Wade And Its Aftermath, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Abortion, Politics, and the Courts: Roe v. Wade and Its Aftermath by Eva R. Rubin

Politics Against Law, Ernest Van Den Haag

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Politics of Law: A Progressive Critique by David Kairys

Fair Representation: Meeting The Ideal Of One Man, One Vote, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Fair Representation: Meeting the Ideal of One Man, One Vote by Michel L. Balinski and H. Peyton Young

The Courts' Inherent Power To Compel Legislative Funding Of Judicial Functions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Litigation results when the legislative branch contests the inherent power order. Because judicial compulsion of legislative action must derive from constitutional authority, and because of the practical and doctrinal challenges such litigation presents, many courts have struggled to resolve these cases in a principled fashion. This Note defends the inherent power doctrine, but argues that current judicial approaches to its application have failed to confront squarely the central issues raised by inherent power orders. The Note advocates an alternative procedure for defining the legitimate scope of judicial authority to compel appropriations on its own behalf. Part I examines the constitutional …

The Politics Of Judicial Reform, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Politics of Judicial Reform edited by Philip L. Dubois

Empty History, Erwin Chermerinsky

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Politics and the Constitution in the History of the United States, Volume 3: The Political Background of the Federal Convention by William Winslow Crosskey and William Jeffrey, Jr.

The Public's Right To Know: The Supreme Court As Pandora?, Loren P. Beth

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Public's Right to Know: The Supreme Court and the First Amendment by David M. O'Brien

Industry Influence In Federal Regulatory Agencies, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Industry Influence in Federal Regulatory Agencies by Paul J. Quirk

A Territorial Approach To Representation For Illegal Aliens, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note rejects these arguments in favor of the thesis that the census clause affirmatively requires including illegal aliens in the census figures used to apportion representatives among the states. Part I argues that the framers intended to allocate representation among the states based on a number of considerations, including wealth, and chose total population within the territory of each state as the best measure of those considerations. Part II contends that the requirement of individual equality in voting rights does not apply to interstate comparisons of voting power. Rather, a specific structural agreement reached by the states as sovereign …

Abortion And The Presidential Election Of 1976: A Multivariate Analysis Of Voting Behavior, Maris A. Vinovskis

Michigan Law Review

Despite the widespread public interest in the role of the abortion controversy in American politics today, no one has attempted to analyze systematically its impact on the electorate. Some national opinion surveys have asked voters whether or not they would be influenced by a candidate's position on abortion, but they have not attempted to ascertain its relative importance, compared to other considerations, in the final deliberations of the electorate. In an effort to provide a more systematic study of the role of abortion in American politics today, this Article analyzes the campaign to elect the President of the United States …

Public Support For Pro-Choice Abortion Policies In The Nation And States: Changes And Stability After The Roe And Doe Decisions, Eric M. Uslaner, Ronald E. Weber

Michigan Law Review

"The Supreme Court," according to the legendary Mr. Dooley, "follows the election returns." In 1973, the Court's two landmark decisions, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, struck down statutes in the forty-six states where abortions were not permitted under any circumstances or were allowed only to save the life of the woman during the first three months of pregnancy. There had been a considerable increase in the level of support for the pro-choice position among the public in the few years preceding Roe and Doe. But did the decisions themselves lead to even more public support for …

The Politics Of Abortion In The House Of Representatives In 1976, Maris A. Vinovskis

Michigan Law Review

The battle over federal funds for abortions and the attempts to pass a constitutional amendment to prohibit all abortions have become annual events that most members of Congress privately dread but publicly welcome. As "pro-life" and "pro-choice" constituents descend upon their elected officials each year, representatives are forced to face an issue that has no easy legislative solution. Despite the intensity and disruptiveness of these confrontations, there have been no thorough and independent analyses of this phenomenon. Instead, most information on the abortion controversy in Congress has come from the understandably biased pens of the activists on both sides. Representatives …

The Nonpartisan Freedom Of Expression Of Public Employees, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Governmental activities affect each of us in a myriad of ways. The government's role as employer may pale in comparison with the more glamorous activities of the government as national defender, law enforcer, and allocator of scarce resources. Yet the legal ramifications of public employment-where the public interest in efficient governmental operation often conflicts with the public employee's freedom-have a profound influence upon American society.

In 1968, the Supreme Court in Pickering v. Board of Education formulated a test designed to balance these interests in defining the scope of a public employee's freedom of expression. In examining the nonpartisan free …

Urban Politics And The Criminal Courts, Milton Heumann

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Urban Politics and the Criminal Courts by Martin A. Levin

The Politics Of Federal Judicial Administration, Paul D. Carrington

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Politics of Federal Judicial Administration by Peter Graham Fish

Legal Knowledge Of Michigan Citizens, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This empirical study of the legal knowledge of Michigan citizens arose in response to the paucity of research in the area, especially in Michigan, where no such study had previously been conducted, and the contradictory findings of those earlier studies that had been conducted. Its findings may have implications for future efforts to educate the public and may provide some clues as to whether and why certain segments of the population are deficient in legal knowledge.

Income Tax "Loopholes" And Political Rhetoric, Boris I. Bittker

Michigan Law Review

When used by newspaper reporters and politicians, the term "tax loophole" is always a pejorative, though the tone of disapproval may be mingled with a dash of admiration for the astute lawyer or accountant who discovered the device. Since condemnation is the predominant tone, it is always assumed that loopholes can be quickly and reliably distinguished from tax provisions that are reasonable and fair. Sometimes, to be sure, it is suggested that the only criterion is self-interest: one man's loophole is another man's relief provision. More frequently, loopholes are said to inure primarily, if not solely, to the benefit of …

Mr. Justice Powell And The Emerging Nixon Majority, A.E. Dick Howard

Michigan Law Review

In recent years, we have come to expect the debate over Supreme Court nominations to reflect ideological passions in the Government and the country at large; the Fortas, Haynsworth, and Carswell cases remain fresh in memory. In the hearings on the nominations of Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and William H. Rehnquist to the Court, Senate Democratic liberals made clear their intention to probe not only the nominees' integrity and legal qualifications, but also their judicial philosophies. It was ironic, therefore, to watch as liberal members of the Judiciary Committee, through their questions and comments at the confirmation hearings, made Powell, …