Legal History Commons^™

Ex Proprio Vigore, James J. White

Articles

The National Conference of the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) is a legislature in every way but one. It drafts uniform acts, debates them, passes them, and promulgates them, but that passage and promulgation do not make these uniform acts law over any citizen of any state. These acts become the law of the various states only ex proprio vigore - only if their own vitality influences the legislators of the various states to pass them.

Absolute Priority And New Value, James J. White

Articles

This paper is based on a lecture given on December 6, 1990 ast the Second Annual Robert E. Krinock Lecture. The absolute priority rule is a specific application of the broader doctrine that reorganization plans must be "fair and equitable." Both have their origins in the railroad reorganization cases of the early 20th century. The general doctrine is now codified in section 1129(b)(2) of the Bankruptcy Code and the rule is codified in subsection 1129(b)(2)(B)(ii) which provides that the debtor must pay a nonconsenting class of unsecured creditors in full or "the holder of any claim or interest that is …

Foreword: The New York Law School Centennial Conference In Honor Of Justice John Marshall Harlan, James F. Simon

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Why Holmes?, Mathias Reimann

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Honorable Justice: The Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes by Sheldon M. Novick

The Third Best Choice: An Essay On Law And History, Theodore Y. Blumoff

Articles

The thesis of this Essay is that our use of history is as essential and unavoidable as conclusive answers are irretrievable. Irretrievability exists whether the historical reality sought results from a survey of traditional historical materials in an effort to recapture original understanding, or from a common-law effort to discover the Court's own history of an issue. In either case, however, the need to attempt to recover historical truths is perceived as essential. I subscribe, for the most part, to the contextualist premise that we cannot recover sufficient historical data on issues that matter to make history determinate in the …

Meeting The Enemy, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.

Advice, Consent, And Influence, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.

Difference Made Legal: The Court And Dr. King, David Luban

Michigan Law Review

My aim in this essay is to contrast two legal retellings of the same event: a set of demonstrations sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 that led to the arrest and incarceration of Martin Luther King, Jr. One is the Supreme Court majority opinion in Walker v. City of Birmingham, sustaining King's conviction; the other, King's own defense of his actions in his Letter from Birmingham Jail I wish to show how the self-same event entails radically different legal consequences when it appears in different narratives, one the Supreme Court's official voice, the …

The Law Of Pretrial Interrogation, Department Of Justice Office Of Legal Policy

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The existing rules in the United States governing the questioning of suspects in custody are based on the Supreme Court's five to four decision in Miranda v. Arizona. The Court in Miranda promulgated a new, code-like set of rules for custodial questioning, including the creation of a right to counsel in connection with custodial questioning, a requirement of warnings, a prohibition of questioning unless the suspect affirmatively waives the rights set out in the warnings, and a prohibition of questioning if the suspect asks for a lawyer or indicates in any manner that he is unwilling to talk. These …

The Plessy Case: A Legal-Historical Interpretation, David D. Meyer

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Plessy Case: A Legal-Historical Interpretation by Charles A. Lofgren

Reimagining The Marshall Court, H. Jefferson Powell

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Marshall Court and Cultural Change, 1815-1835 by G. Edward White

Indian Consent To American Government, Richard B. Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Headwaters Of The Public Trust: Some Thoughts On The Source And Scope Of The Traditional Doctrine, Charles F. Wilkinson

Publications

No abstract provided.

Chief Justice Marshall, Justice Holmes, And The Discourse Of Constitutional Adjudication, G. Edward White

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Updating Statutory Interpretation, T. Alexander Aleinikoff

Michigan Law Review

This month the Supreme Court will hear reargument in Patterson v. McLean Credit Union on the question of whether section 1981 prohibits discrimination by private parties. Professor Aleinikoff examines in depth the first issue raised by Professor Farber. Using metaphors of the archeological and the nautical Professor Aleinikoff describes theories of originalism and their application to statutory interpretation. Concluding that there are nonoriginalist (or nonarcheological) elements implicit in these theories, he proceeds to consider how an explicitly nonoriginalist (or nautical) theory of interpretation might work He concludes by commenting on the application of such a theory to Patterson.

Johnson V. Transportation Agency: The United States Supreme Court Weighs Statistical Imbalance In Favor Of Affirmative Action, 21 J. Marshall L. Rev. 593 (1988), Denise C. Hockley-Cann

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Affirmative Action: A Divided Supreme Court, 22 J. Marshall L. Rev. 99 (1988), Arthur J. Marinelli

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Doing Politics In The United States Supreme Court, 22 J. Marshall L. Rev. 265 (1988), John D. Gorby

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Economic Union As A Constitutional Value, Richard B. Collins

Publications

Professor Collins presents an in-depth defense of the dormant commerce power doctrine. He maintains that the text of the commerce clause, the original intent behind it, and a century of congressional acquiescence to broad judicial enforcement of the dormant commerce power lend sufficient legitimacy to the doctrine to support its continued existence. After examining the textual and historical bases for the doctrine, Professor Collins concludes that the primary purpose behind the commerce clause is the promotion of economic integration and interstate harmony. Based upon his discussion of the doctrine's origins and development, he contends that critics of the doctrine who …

The Rise Of Modern Judicial Review: From Constitutional Interpretation To Judge-Made Law, Ward A. Greenberg

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Rise of Modern Judicial Review: From Constitutional Interpretation to Judge-Made Law by Christopher Wolfe

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

Constitutional Politics: Affirmative Action And Supreme Process, Albert Broderick

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

The History Behind Hansberry V. Lee, 20 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 481 (1987), Allen R. Kamp

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This Article provides the factual background to Hansberry v. Lee, the famous class action case. During the early 1900's, Chicago's black population was kept effectively segregated, primarily through the use of racially restrictive covenants. However, in the 1930's, this system began to break down. The growth of the black population caused an increased demand for black housing, while the Depression reduced the market for white housing. It was at this time that Carl Hansberry bought a house that was covered by a restrictive covenant, generating a lawsuit to have the covenant enforced and the Hansberrys evicted.

Tracing the lawsuit as …

On The Constitutional Status Of The Administrative Agencies, Harold H. Bruff

Publications

No abstract provided.

American Indians And The Bicentennial, Richard B. Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.

Notes On A Bicentennial Constitution: Part Ii, Antinomial Choices And The Role Of The Supreme Court, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

Continuing the examination of judicial review conducted around the Constitution’s bicentennial, this article lays bare the inconsistencies in the expected tasks of the Supreme Court. Where some roles of the Court have traditionally been treated as indivisible, examining those same roles separate from one another produces an incoherent view of the Court that is difficult to compromise.

Constructing A Constitution: 'Orginal Intention' In The Slave Cases, James Boyd White

Other Publications

The question how our Constitution is to be interpreted is a living one for us today, both in the scholarly and in the political domains. Professors argue about "interpretivism" and "originalism" in law journals, they study hermeneutics and deconstruction to determine whether or not interpretation is possible at all, and if so on what premises, and they struggle to create theories that will tell us both what we do in fact and what we ought to do. Politicians and public figures (including Attorney General Edwin Meese) talk in the newspapers and elsewhere about the authority of the "original intention of …

Justices And Presidents: A Political History Of Appointments To The Supreme Court (2d Edition), James S. Portnoy

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court (2d edition) by Henry J. Abraham

Justice Brennan: A Tribute To A Federal Judge Who Believes In State's Rights, 20 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1 (1986), Ann Lousin

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Rise Of The Supreme Court Reporter: An Institutional Perspective On Marshall Court Ascendancy, Craig Joyce

Michigan Law Review

This Article will first explore the antecedents to, and beginnings of, the reporter system under Alexander J. Dallas and William Cranch. Next, the Article will examine the transformation of the system under the Court's first official Reporter, the scholarly Henry Wheaton. Finally, the Article will recount the struggle between Wheaton and his more practical successor, Richard Peters, Jr., that culminated in 1834 in the Court's declaration that its decisions are the property of the people of the United States, and not of the Court's Reporters.