Constitutional Law Commons^™

The Ethical Dilemma Of The Highest Court: Could Congress Constitutionally Impose A Binding Code Of Ethics On The United States Supreme Court?, Amys Serret

FIU Law Review

In response to mounting ethical concerns about Supreme Court Justices, the Court introduced its own Code of Conduct in November 2023, likely prompted by recent controversies involving Justice Clarence Thomas. This code aimed to dispel the public perception that Supreme Court Justices operate without ethical boundaries. The code mirrors the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, established in 1973, outlining ethical rules and principles for the Justices. It shares the same five canons and includes most provisions from the lower federal judges’ code, albeit with some differences. Although the Court’s ability to establish its own code is unquestioned, this …

Free Movement Rights And The American City, Ryan Stoa

FIU Law Review

American cities are facing an inflection point. Widespread dissatisfaction with urban planning outcomes is making land use and transportation policies (such as congestion pricing) a mainstream topic of debate. Suburban sprawl and housing shortages are moving urban populations into the periphery, commuting times (and associated mental health problems) are increasing, and pedestrian and cyclist deaths caused by vehicles are at all-time highs. American cities that were largely planned and built in the twentieth century based on assumptions that we now know are flawed are not meeting the needs of their residents, and urban planners are making changes to reshape urban …

Emergency Oversight, Catherine Baylin Duryea

FIU Law Review

This Article examines one of the most pressing questions in administrative law: How much judicial oversight should administrative agencies face during an emergency? This issue was particularly salient during the COVID epidemic, but it is not new. The Second World War saw a significant expansion and consolidation of the power of administrative agencies as well as experimentation with the appropriate oversight role for courts. This Article analyzes one such experiment: judicial oversight of agencies implementing wartime anti-inflationary measures, i.e. price controls and rationing. During the war, Congress created a specialized court, the Emergency Court of Appeals (ECA), to hear disputes …

Being Pregnant In Someone Else's Body, Jennifer S. Hendricks

FIU Law Review

In the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning the right to abortion, now is a critical time to re-assess how legal feminism theorizes the pregnant body. Before Dobbs, feminist legal scholarship had blazed a path of anti-maternalism, a stance rooted in liberal, formalist notions of equality that denigrates the “feminine” and too often minimizes the importance of reproductive issues both as tools of sex-based subordination in the present and as foundations for liberation in the future. Anti-maternalism is attractive to legal scholars because it minimizes sex and gender differences and may appear to be gender-inclusive. It has produced arguments that …

Controlling The Mischief Of New York’S Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act Through Constitutional Pre-Emption, Shelby D. Green

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

FAPA aimed to ease the burdens of long-delayed foreclosure proceedings by restating the operation of the statute of limitations. It contains provisions across several sections of state statutes that specify that once the six year statute of limitations on actions to foreclose commences, typically by the acceleration of the balance due on the promissory note and commencement of suit, it continues to run, even after the parties have entered into a workout agreement and have dismissed the complaint. By express terms, the Act had immediate effect, such that those lenders who withdrew complaints pursuant to a workout agreement before the …

Severability And Liberty, Randy J. Kozel

Journal Articles

In US federal courts and the courts of many states, the presumption of statutory severability leads judges to separate a statute’s unlawful elements from its lawful ones. This article contends that the presumption becomes problematic when the effect of severing is to restrict the constitutional rights of a group whom the legislature exempted from regulation. Presumptive severability draws on a conception of judicial review that aspires to minimize interference with enacted legislation. But there is a countervailing constitutional interest in protecting exempted groups from restrictions on their liberty unless and until the legislature directs otherwise. It is these competing strands …

Administering Presidential Elections And Counting Electoral Votes After Trump V. Anderson, Derek T. Muller

Journal Articles

In the landmark case Trump v. Anderson, the Supreme Court unanimously held that states lack the unilateral power to exclude presidential candidates from the ballot on the basis of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. But while the Court was united in its essential holding, the Justices fractured in their reasoning, leaving significant questions about Congress's role in enforcing Section 3 against presidential candidates.

This Article examines the fault lines in Trump v. Anderson and analyzes how Congress's power to count electoral votes under the Twelfth Amendment intersects with its authority to enforce Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. …

Understanding Brady Violations, Jennifer Mason Mcaward

Journal Articles

This largest-ever study of adjudicated violations of Brady v. Maryland provides a detailed and nuanced understanding of who suppresses material evidence in criminal cases, as well as why, how, where, and how often. Its findings complicate the conventional wisdom that Brady violations are the work of nefarious prosecutors who intentionally withhold material evidence from criminal defendants. While it is true that “bad faith” permeates this area of constitutional noncompliance, a substantial minority of Brady cases stem from “good faith” errors by prosecutors and suppression by law enforcement officers. Most Brady violations occur in a small number of states, and most …

What Is Trump Immunity?, Carlos Manuel Vázquez

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In Trump v. United States, the Supreme Court held that a former President is entitled to an immunity in criminal cases in certain circumstances. The decision has been heavily criticized, with many commentators saying it places the President above the law. Exactly how it does so depends on what type of immunity a former President enjoys. Is the immunity enjoyed by former Presidents in criminal cases an immunity from the operation of the primary obligations imposed by the criminal laws in question? Or is it an immunity from being subjected to certain types of sanctions for having violated validly …

Does The Original Meaning Of The Fourteenth Amendment Protect Economic Liberty?, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In my remarks today, I will defend the proposition that the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment protects "economic liberty." To clarify the issue, let me being by defining economic liberty. I define economic liberty as the right to acquire, use and possess private property and the right to enter into private contracts of one's choosing. If these rights are protected by the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, then we can conclude that the Amendment does protect economic liberty.

In my view, the evidence that the original meaning Fourteenth Amendment protects rights of private property and contract is overwhelming. …

Brief Of Professors Julian Arato, Rachel Brewster, Harlan Grant Cohen, David Singh Grewal, J. Benton Heath, Timothy Meyer, Gregory Shaffer, And Chantal Thomas As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners In No. 24-1287 And Respondents In No. 25-250, Julian Arato, Rachel Brewster, Harlan Grant Cohen, David Singh Grewal, J. Benton Heath, Timothy Meyer, Gregory Shaffer, Chantal Thomas

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The False Evidence Ploy: A Coercive, Not Just Deceptive, Police Tactic, Alexa D. Sondey

Touro Law Review

Why would people confess to a crime they did not commit? It may seem hard to imagine that an innocent person would confess but as this Note will show, false confessions are a real and serious issue. One cause of false confessions is the False Evidence Ploy - a police interrogation tactic where police falsely tell a suspect they have some sort of incriminating evidence against them. This Note argues that the Ploy is psychological coercion, as it may cause innocent suspects to believe they actually committed the crime and then confess. N.Y. Bill S324A presented a solution, banning the …

The Problematic Nature Of Punishment For Secret Taping, Carol M. Bast

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

Defeating Antisemitism In The World’S First Democratic Republic: The American Revolution And Jewish Legal And Political Equality, Paul Finkelman, Lance J. Sussman

Touro Law Review

At a moment when antisemitism is on the rise in the United States, we believe it is useful to consider how the American Revolution led to the first nation in the world where antisemitism was fundamentally contrary to the national constitution and Jews were entitled to full rights as citizens of the national government. As we explain in this article, during and after the Revolution, Jews were free to participate in all professions and general civic life, naturalize (if immigrants), vote, serve on juries, become lawyers and judges, become military officers, and attend universities. Jews had almost none of these …

“Forced Worship Stinks In God’S Nostrils”: The Inquisition, Sepharad, And The American Experiment, Isaac Amon

Touro Law Review

In December 1791, the Bill of Rights, comprising the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, enshrined fundamental protections for individual freedoms, with the First Amendment guaranteeing liberty of conscience. This milestone, however, was the culmination of centuries of struggle. The arrival of Iberian Jews, including conversos, in North America played a pivotal role in shaping the course of American history. The Founders referenced the Inquisition in their letters and debates, particularly in discussions on legal protections for criminal suspects and the broader issue of religious liberty. Founding assurances of religious freedom to Jews and Christians stand in stark contrast …

Hallows Lecture: Resorting To Courts Or To Community Conversations? Article Iii Standing As The Guardian Of Free Speech And Democratic Self-Governance, Michael Y. Scudder

Marquette Law Review

None.

Reform For Realists: The False Promise Of Condorcet Voting, G. Michael Parsons, Rachel Hutchinson

Marquette Law Review

As Americans grow disenchanted with democracy, many scholars suggest that election reforms may offer a path forward. The fastest growing of these reforms is ranked choice voting (RCV). In RCV elections, voters rank candidates in order of preference: first, second, third, and so on. The candidates with the least support are eliminated, and ballots that ranked those candidates count for their next choice instead. This method has over a century of use in public elections and provides proven benefits well-suited to many of the problems facing our country.

Yet some social choice theorists now argue that reformers have backed the …

Freedom Of Peaceful Assembly Under Section 2(C) Of The Charter: A Call For Action, Jamie Cameron

All Papers

“A Call for Action” builds on the author’s previous work on s.2(c) for the Rouleau Commission (“Freedom of Assembly and Section 2(c) of the Charter”; available on SSRN and Osgoode Digital Commons). There is no framework of legality under the Charter for the scope and limits of peaceful assembly, and this follow-up paper begins the task of filling that gap. It addresses the relationship between s.2(b) and s.2(c), critiquing the “factual matrix principle” for subsuming issues freedom of assembly into freedom of expression, and explaining that assembly is a distinctive collective entitlement that is spatial and performative in nature. …

What Is The Standard Of Review For (Mixed) Constitutional Questions?, Anthony R. Sangiuliano, Mark Friedman

All Papers

According to the framework for selecting the standard of review in civil appeals developed in Housen v Nikolaisen, questions of mixed fact and law are reviewed on a standard of palpable and overriding error. This framework applies to allegations that a statute is constitutionally invalid. However, in Société des casinos du Québec inc v Association des cadres de la Société des casinos du Québec, the Supreme Court held that when a statute is challenged as unconstitutional before an administrative tribunal, questions of mixed fact and law are subject to a correctness standard on judicial review as an exception to the …

Indigenous Governance And The Charter: What Can Indigenous Constitutionalism Offer?, Karen Drake

All Papers

The question of whether the Charter should apply to Indigenous governance is often presented in terms of a contest between Indigenous self-determination and protections for vulnerable individuals. The two judgments applying the Charter in the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Dickson v. Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation exemplify this dichotomy. This approach, however, reflects a false dilemma; it overlooks Indigenous constitutionalism’s ability to resolve the kinds of issues that the Charter aims to resolve, but without sacrificing Indigenous self-determination. To illustrate this point, this article applies one form of Indigenous constitutionalism— Anishinaabe constitutionalism grounded within an Anishinaabe lifeworld—to the fact …