Legal History Commons^™

Where's The Fire?, Burt Neuborne

Journal of Law and Policy

Freedom of speech is priceless, but distressingly fragile. Life, and law, would be much simpler if we could react to free speech's importance and fragility by granting it absolute legal protection. Since, however, absolute protection of speech is not—and should not be—a serious option, we face the legal realist challenge of erecting a First Amendment legal structure capable of providing real-world protection to highly controversial speech, often by weak speakers, without closing the door to government regulation. Given the uncertainty inherent in applying fact-dependent complex rules in protean factual settings, many potential speakers would avoid being drawn into unpredictable and …

Protecting Hatred Preserves Freedom: Why Offensive Expressions Command Constitutional Protection, Andrew P. Napolitano

Journal of Law and Policy

The First Amendment is not the guardian of taste. Instead, the U.S. Constitution wholeheartedly protects freedom of thought and expression, even if generated and defined by hatred, as long as that expression does not produce immediate lawless violence. Although free speech may lead to tenuous relationships or uncomfortable debates, it must be defended unconditionally. Too many politicians and lawmakers believe that the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment attaches only to those ideas and expressions that they approve of; this is not so. This article argues that the Founders intended the First Amendment's free speech principle as a …

Freedom Of Speech And Equality: Do We Have To Choose?, Nadine Strossen

Journal of Law and Policy

As a lifelong activist on behalf of both equality and free speech, I am convinced, based on actual experience, that these core values are mutually reinforcing, and not, as some have argued, in tension with each other. Moreover, I am convinced that this is true even for offensive or hateful speech that affronts our most cherished beliefs. However, defining hateful or offensive speech is inherently arbitrary and subjective, which raises concerns about what speech should be restricted, and how. Empowering government to punish hateful or offensive expresson necessarily vests officials with enormous discretionary power, which will inevitably lead to arbitrary …

The Academy, Campaign Finance, And Free Speech Under Fire, Bradley A. Smith

Journal of Law and Policy

This article discusses the issue of campaign finance and the impact money has on the political process in the country. The author suggests campaign finance regulations that curb the current threat it poses to the system, as well as the First Amendment itself. Lastly, the author discusses the impact academics have had on the debate and this decline in support of free speech that has resulted from the debate.

Producing Democratic Vibrancy, K. Sabeel Rahman

Journal of Law and Policy

Professor Rahman gives his thoughts and opinions on the impact of Citizens' United v. FEC and the growth of the First Amendment debate since. The comment analyzes the normative udnerstanding of democracy and the ongoing debate campaifgn finance have. Professor Rahman concludes by suggesting that the debate is wrongly focused on the indivudals being consumers of politcal speech rather than the producers of it.

A Balancing Act For American Universities: Anti-Harassment Policy V. Freedom Of Speech, Bridget Hart

Journal of Law and Policy

Legal scholars, educational administrators, journalists, and students have all witnessed a rise in students being disciplined by university officials for speech and conduct deemed inappropriate for college campuses. In endeavoring to explain this trend, some academics point to the disconnect between the Department of Education and university administrators regarding the legal standards for campus anti-harassment policies. The lack of clarity regarding what constitutes harassment on college campuses has resulted in the punishment of students by universities for speech and conduct that is normally considered to be protected speech under the First Amendment. This note first provides an overview of the …

United States V. Klintock: Reconsideration Of United States V. Palmer As To General Piracy As Defined By The Law Of Nations Through The Applicable Standards Of Political Action Of Acknowledgement And Recognition And The Status Of Statelessness, Justin L. Sieffert

Legal History Publications

During the February 1820 Term, the Supreme Court of the United States decided four significant piracy cases, beginning with United States v. Klintock. Political, economic, and social pressures enhanced the problem of piracy affecting the interests of the United States. Responding to the criticism of his decision in United States v. Palmer and the passage of the Act of 1819 state Congressional intent for defining piracy by the “law of nations,” Marshall authored the decision in Klintock distinguishing Palmer and, upon reconsideration, interpreting the Act of 1790 to include general piracy as defined by the “law of nations.” With …

A Structural Etiology Of The U.S. Constitution, Charles Edward Andrew Lincoln Iv

Student Scholarship

This article offers an interpretation of the problems addressed by and the eventual purpose of the United States government. Simultaneously, it seeks to analyze and explain the continued three-part structure of the United States federal government as outlined in the Constitution. Subsequently I define the three parts of the federal government—judiciary, executive, and legislative—as explained through the lens of the Platonic paradigm of (logos = word = law), (thymos = external driving spirit = executive), and (eros = general welfare = legislative) extrapolated from Plato’s dialogues.

First, the article establishes Plato’s theory of the three-part Platonic soul as a major …

On The Battlefield Of Merit: Harvard Law School, The First Century, By Daniel R. Coquillette And Bruce A. Kimball, John Henry Schlegel

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

State-Action Immunity And Section 5 Of The Ftc Act, Daniel A. Crane, Adam Hester

Michigan Law Review

The state-action immunity doctrine of Parker v. Brown immunizes anticompetitive state regulations from preemption by federal antitrust law so long as the state takes conspicuous ownership of its anticompetitive policy. In its 1943 Parker decision, the Supreme Court justified this doctrine, observing that no evidence of a congressional will to preempt state law appears in the Sherman Act’s legislative history or context. In addition, commentators generally assume that the New Deal court was anxious to avoid re-entangling the federal judiciary in Lochner-style substantive due process analysis. The Supreme Court has observed, without deciding, that the Federal Trade Commission might …

Redistributive Taxation In The Modern World, Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Academic discussion of justice and taxation has focused on determining the moral limits of taxation. This article is concerned specifically with the moral limits on the redistributivity of taxation. Rawlsian principles enable us to determine the moral upper and lower bounds of redistribution through tax and transfer systems. However, major changes since Rawls and Nozick prompt a re-examination of these bounds in the modern context. Increased affluence means that for many societies the worst-off citizens are well-off in absolute terms. Increased immigration and emigration means that the classical model of a closed society is now obsolete. I consider the basis …

The American Press Covers Jfk's Murder, And The Impossible Comes To Pass, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

Almost from the moment Dallas police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald two hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, the American news media establishment began trumpeting as proven fact the story that Oswald was the killer. This article looks at how Russian and Cuban press's view of the assassination was diametrically opposed to that of the American press.

Martin V. Mott And The Establishment Of Executive Emergency Authority, Eli Berns-Zieve

Legal History Publications

In August of 1814, a New York farmer named Jacob E. Mott refused to rendezvous with the militia pursuant to the orders of Governor Daniel D. Tompkins as commanded by President James Madison. In 1818, Mott was court martialed and fined ninety-six dollars. One year later, Mott brought an action in replevin in the New York state courts to recover chattel taken from him by a deputy marshal in lieu of the ninety-six dollars. Both the New York trial and appellate courts sided with Mott. In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Joseph Story, the Supreme Court of the United …

Willson V. Black-Bird Creek Marsh Co., 25 U.S. 245 (1829): An Early Test Of The Dormant Commerce Clause, Michael P. Collins Jr.

Legal History Publications

In 1822, Delaware authorized the Blackbird Creek Marsh Company to bank and drain the Blackbird Creek in New Castle County. Subsequently, Thompson Wilson and others destroyed the structure built by the marsh company. The marsh company subsequently sued Mr. Wilson for the damage to its property. The parties eventually appealed their dispute to the Supreme Court of the United States. The Court held that Delaware’s authorization to bank and dam the creek did not conflict with the federal government’s exclusive authority to regulate commerce between the several states. Ultimately, the Court decided Willson in a manner inconsistent with its earlier …

“Government By Injunction,” Legal Elites, And The Making Of The Modern Federal Courts, Kristin Collins

Faculty Scholarship

The tendency of legal discourse to obscure the processes by which social and political forces shape the law’s development is well known, but the field of federal courts in American constitutional law may provide a particularly clear example of this phenomenon. According to conventional accounts, Congress’s authority to regulate the lower federal courts’ “jurisdiction”—generally understood to include their power to issue injunctions— has been a durable feature of American constitutional law since the founding. By contrast, the story I tell in this essay is one of change. During the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, many jurists considered the federal …

Law And Modernization In China: The Juridical Behavior Of The Chinese Communists, Daniel J. Hoffheimer

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Single-Assassin Theory, The Media Establishment And The Cia, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Popular Media

We have long known that, criminally, outrageously and repeatedly, the Central Intelligence Agency stonewalled official government investigations of the JFK assassination. But we also now know that for the last half-century, using its numerous and influential assets and supporters in the mainstream media, the CIA has engaged in a clandestine crusade to preserve, protect, and defend the Warren Report’s sole-assassin claim from criticism, even when the criticism is warranted. This article delves into how these two entities have provided disinformation to the public.

Class Roots: The Genesis Of The Ontario Class Proceedings Act, 1966 - 1993, Suzanne Erica Chiodo

LLM Theses

Nearly 25 years since its passage, the Ontario Class Proceedings Act has become one of the most frequently debated procedural mechanisms of its kind. The CPA came about following the release of the Attorney Generals Advisory Committee (AGAC) Report in 1990. None of the current narratives explain how this Report pulled together so many divergent interests where previous attempts had failed. My thesis answers this question with reference to the historical sources and the legal, political and social changes that took place throughout this period.

This thesis also highlights the unique nature of the AGAC consultation process, which saw the …

Eugenics, Jim Crow, And Baltimore's Best, Garrett Power

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Interest And Irritation: Brown V. Maryland And The Making Of A National Economy, Henry P. Callegary

Legal History Publications

This paper examines the United States Supreme Court case Brown v. Maryland, 25 U.S. (12 Wheat.) 419 (1827), which struck down Maryland’s licensing fee on wholesalers of imported goods. In doing so, the Court reaffirmed its commitment to a national economic policy, instead of a state-centric system. This paper explores the context of the decision, including profiles of the parties involved, the attorneys for both sides, the lower court decisions, and the majority opinion and dissent from the United States Supreme Court. Additionally, this paper follows the lineage of the case through to the present day, examining its doctrinal impact …

Law Library Blog (November 2016): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

"Within The Limits Of The Constitutional Grant": Constitutional Limitations On The Patent Power, Edward C. Walterscheid

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Smith And Hogan At Villanova: Reflections On Anglo-American Criminal Law, The Definition Of Rape, And What America Still Needs To Learn From England, Michelle Madden Dempsey

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Armstrong Evolution, Michael Pappas

Maryland Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

Brief Amici Curiae Of Professors Of History, Political Science, And Law In Support Of Respondent, Kristin Collins, Catherine E. Stetson, Jessica K. Jacobs

Faculty Scholarship

Sex-based laws premised on archaic presumptions about the proper roles of men and women run afoul of established constitutional principles, especially when they interfere with the parent-child relationship. Amici write to explain the history of the federal government’s use of sex-based classifications in the regulation of citizenship. In its regulation of intergenerational and interspousal citizenship transmission, the federal government has perpetuated outdated gender-based norms concerning proper parental roles, even when those norms have been rejected in other legal and social contexts. In addition, the laws governing derivative citizenship have significantly encumbered the ability of American fathers to transmit citizenship to …

Mission Accomplished: The Unfinished Relationship Between Black Law Schools And Their Historical Constituencies, Mary Wright

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

A “Second Magna Carta”: The English Habeas Corpus Act And The Statutory Origins Of The Habeas Privilege, Amanda L. Tyler

Notre Dame Law Review

In my own scholarship, Fallon and Meltzer’s work on habeas models prompted me to dig deeper into the historical backdrop that informed ratification of the Suspension Clause and think harder about the relevance of that history for questions of constitutional interpretation. This, in turn, has spurred work that has occupied me for many years since. In the spirit of engaging with my federal courts professor one more time, this Article tells the story of the statutory origins of the habeas privilege—what Blackstone called a “second magna carta”—and argues that any explication of the constitutional privilege and discussion of how …

A History Of The Missouri Court Of Appeals: The Role Of Regional Conflicts In Shaping Intermediate Appellate Court Structure, Jamie Pamela Rasmussen

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

The Distinctive Role Of Justice Samuel Alito: From A Politics Of Restoration To A Politics Of Dissent, Neil S. Siegel

Faculty Scholarship

Justice Samuel Alito is regarded by both his champions and his critics as the most consistently conservative member of the current Supreme Court. Both groups seem to agree that he has become the most important conservative voice on the Court. Chief Justice John Roberts has a Court to lead; Justice Antonin Scalia and his particular brand of originalism have passed on; Justice Clarence Thomas is a stricter originalist and so writes opinions that other Justices do not join; and Justice Anthony Kennedy can be ideologically unreliable. Justice Alito, by contrast, is unburdened by the perceived responsibilities of being Chief Justice, …

The New Labor Law, Kate Andrias

Articles

Labor law is failing. Disfigured by courts, attacked by employers, and rendered inapt by a global and fissured economy, many of labor law’s most ardent proponents have abandoned it altogether. And for good reason: the law that governs collective organization and bargaining among workers has little to offer those it purports to protect. Several scholars have suggested ways to breathe new life into the old regime, yet their proposals do not solve the basic problem. Labor law developed for the New Deal does not provide solutions to today’s inequities. But all hope is not lost. From the remnants of the …