Constitutional Law Commons^™

Brief Of Amici Curiae Scholars For The Advancement Of Children’S Constitutional Rights In Support Of Defendants-Appellees: St. Mary Catholic Parish V. Roy, Lauren Fontana, Catherine Smith, Tanya M. Washington, Robin Walker Sterling, Suzette Malveaux, Jeremiah Chin, Sara S. Hildebrand

Scholarly Articles

Amici are scholars of children and the law, education law, family law, and anti-discrimination law. Amici draw this Court’s attention to the harms that four-year-olds in the LGBT community – LGBT children and children with LGBT parents – would bear should state-funded religious schools be granted a license to discriminate against them. An exemption to Colorado’s Universal Preschool Program’s equal-opportunity requirement would allow plaintiffs to discriminate against these children and plant unfair barriers in their paths to a high-quality education and inflict dignitary, psychological, and familial harms upon an entire class of young people solely because of their or their …

Don't Call It 'Privacy': Data Protection, From Ideas To Constitutional Law, Raphaël Beauregard-Lacroix

SJD Dissertations

Data protection law has been subject to various criticisms, among which is one of a fundamental kind: devoted to procedures, it lost sight of its privacy-bound origins. This dissertation aims to provide a novel historical and comparative account of the transatlantic development of data protection law, from the origins to this day, identifying how it may yet succeed in reaching the policy goals its original proponents imagined, and untangling key legal concepts along the way.

The regulatory concept of data protection was founded on three basic principles: purpose limitation, universality, and institutional supervision and enforcement. These three principles trace their …

The Inadmissibility Of Victim Impact Evidence, Fernanda Gonzalez

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Currently, 41% of inmates on death row in the United States are Black, even though Black people make up only 13.6% of the total population in the country. Additionally, the data has repeatedly shown that states that do not have the death penalty have lower murder rates than states that do. Despite these disparities, more than half of states in the United States continue to allow capital punishment in some form as an alternative to a life sentence. These disparities were further exacerbated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Payne v. Tennessee, which allowed prosecutors to introduce victim impact evidence …

Offshore Wind: A Comparative Of The United States And Norway

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Human Right To Water And Sanitation In International Law And The Conflict In The Nile Basin

Fordham Environmental Law Review

Ethiopia’s construction and operation of the Grand Ethiopian

Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile has intensified the long-

standing water conflict involving Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan, and

highlights the urgent need for a new legal framework for the Nile

Basin’s governance. This article traces the history of the international

human right to water and sanitation and previous attempts to govern

water use in the Nile Basin. We argue that outdated colonial-era

treaties, which Egypt and Sudan insist on using as a baseline for

negotiations, are a significant obstacle to resolving the Nile conflict

and managing the region’s water resources …

Debts And Desertion: Bankruptcy Law And The Orphan Well Crisis

Fordham Environmental Law Review

The issue of orphan wells—unplugged and unproductive oil and

gas wells with no responsible operator—poses a significant

environmental and public health threat in the United States. The scale

of this crisis is alarming: there are over 120,000 documented orphan

wells and potentially millions more undocumented. These wells are

often significant sources of methane emissions and other toxins that

exacerbate climate change and endanger the health of surrounding

communities. This paper examines the orphan well crisis, exploring

how wells become orphaned and the environmental and health

impacts associated with them. Furthermore, it delves into how the

situation is likely to worsen …

Cruel And Unusual Punishment: A Human Rights-Based Argument For Extending The Eighth Amendment To Capital Punishment Methods, Brittany Walker

Human Rights Brief

Though Americans generally support capital punishment, there are many issues with how states currently choose to execute individuals, including concern that the different execution methods used by states to carry out capital punishment violates the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, lack of regulation of states and lack of accountability. Further, certain execution methods may violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This article suggests recommendations for state legislatures, the United States Congress, and the Supreme Court for ensuring the humane treatment of individuals during an execution.

Is Life Imprisonment Without Parole Still Degrading Treatment Under The Echr?, Aykhan Dadashov

Human Rights Brief

After the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”) decided Hutchinson v. The United Kingdom in 2017, debates about ECtHR’s position on life sentences without the possibility of parole arose. Some scholars deem the decision a departure from the ECtHR’s principles in Vinter and Others v. The United Kingdom, which held that non-reducible life sentences are a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Although the ECtHR came to different conclusions in Hutchinson and Vinter, the ECtHR still considers life imprisonment without parole inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Irreducible life imprisonment is still incompatible …

Boiling Behind Bars: Exploring The Hidden Toll Of Extreme Heat On Mental Health In Texas Prisons, Sandra K. Miller

Social Work Theses - Archive

The State of Texas supports the largest prison system in the US and held 132,859 people in 100 units scattered across the state as of December 2023. Approximately 70% of Texas prison beds are not air conditioned, despite the state’s reputation for dangerously hot, humid summers. The State has officially recorded temperatures inside Texas prison facilities as high as 120 degrees with heat index values of over 150. Although there is a growing body of research on the negative physiological and psychological consequences of extreme heat among the general public, little is known about the physical and emotional toll of …

On The 175th Anniversary Of The Wisconsin Constitution: An Examination Of The Early Court “Repairs” Of A Rushed Document, Steven M. Biskupic

Marquette Law Review

The Wisconsin Constitution was a document prepared in a hurry. The fall 1848 national election was expected to be a referendum on the spread of slavery and the only way for residents of the Wisconsin Territory to vote in the national election was for Wisconsin to become a state. In order to become a state, however, Wisconsin first needed a constitution. For forty days in late December 1847 and January 1848, a constitutional convention met in Madison. Using the 1840s equivalent, delegates “cut and pasted” whole sections from the constitutions of New York and Michigan, as well as from an …

Reform And Removal At The Federal Reserve: Independence, Accountability, And The Separation Of Powers In U.S. Central Banking, Peter Margulies

Marquette Law Review

Separation of powers issues concerning the Federal Reserve System have generated intense debate. Controversy has been acute regarding the system’s provision of for-cause protection from presidential removal for members of the Board of Governors and the absence of the gold standard of presidential appointment or Senate advice and consent for other key officers. This debate has gained traction from the Supreme Court’s recent decisions finding constitutional flaws with removal protections in federal agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and with procedures for appointing and supervising other federal officials.

This Article turns to a novel approach that assesses past …

The Historical Regulation Of Intoxicated Firearms Possession And Carry: A Response To F. Lee Francis’S Armed And Under The Influence: The Second Amendment And The Intoxicant Rule After Bruen, Mark Anthony Frassetto

Marquette Law Review

Recently, the Marquette Law Review published Armed and Under the Influence: The Second Amendment and the Intoxicant Rule After Bruen by Professor F. Lee Francis. In that article, Professor Francis provocatively argues that the Second Amendment protects the right of intoxicated people to carry guns in public. Francis argues that, under the history-focused framework for deciding Second Amendment cases laid out by the Supreme Court in Bruen, there is an insufficient historical tradition to support prohibiting intoxicated people from carrying arms in public. Francis is wrong about the historical tradition. The historical tradition of regulating the intersection of guns and …

Railroading Interstate Corporations: Personal Jurisdiction And Dormant Commerce After Mallory V. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., Abigail Nilsson

Marquette Law Review

In Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., the Supreme Court resurrected a long-dormant theory of personal jurisdiction: that by registering to do business in a state, a corporation consents to general jurisdiction. This Comment critiques the Mallory plurality’s reliance on pre-International Shoe caselaw, arguing that the decision unnecessarily sidesteps decades of precedent, mistakes coercion for consent, and inaptly analogizes registration- jurisdiction statutes to tag jurisdiction on individuals. It further explores Justice Alito’s concurring concern that such statutes may violate the Dormant Commerce Clause by imposing disproportionate burdens on out-of-state corporations without corresponding state benefits. Finally, the Comment uses Wisconsin as …

Roots Of The Living Tree: The Growth Of Constitutional Interpretation In Canada, The Honourable Suzanne CôTé

Marquette Law Review

None.

Public Primacy In Corporate Law, Dorothy S. Lund

Seattle University Law Review

This Article explores the malleability of agency theory by showing that it could be used to justify a “public primacy” standard for corporate law that would direct fiduciaries to promote the value of the corporation for the benefit of the public. Employing agency theory to describe the relationship between corporate management and the broader public sheds light on aspects of firm behavior, as well as the nature of state contracting with corporations. It also provides a lodestar for a possible future evolution of corporate law and governance: minimize the agency costs created by the divergence of interests between management and …

Robo-Voting: Does Delegated Proxy Voting Pose A Challenge For Shareholder Democracy?, John Matsusaka, Chong Shu

Seattle University Law Review

Robo-voting is the practice by an investment fund of mechanically voting in corporate elections according to the advice of its proxy advisor— in effect fully delegating its voting decision to its advisor. We examined over 65 million votes cast during the period 2008–2021 by 14,582 mutual funds to describe and quantify the prevalence of robo-voting. Overall, 33% of mutual funds robo-voted in 2021: 22% with ISS, 4% with Glass Lewis, and six percent with the recommendations of the issuer’s management. The fraction of funds that robo-voted increased until around 2013 and then stabilized at the current level. Despite the sizable …

The Limits Of Corporate Governance, Cathy Hwang, Emily Winston

Seattle University Law Review

What is the purpose of the corporation? For decades, the answer was clear: to put shareholders’ interests first. In many cases, this theory of shareholder primacy also became synonymous with the imperative to maximize shareholder wealth. In the world where shareholder primacy was a north star, courts, scholars, and policymakers had relatively little to fight about: most debates were minor skirmishes about exactly how to maximize shareholder wealth.

Part I of this Essay discusses the shortcomings of shareholder primacy and stakeholder governance, arguing that neither of these modes of governance provides an adequate framework for incentivizing corporations to do good. …

The Pioneers, Waves, And Random Walks Of Securities Law In The Supreme Court, Elizabeth Pollman

Seattle University Law Review

After the pioneers, waves, and random walks that have animated the history of securities laws in the U.S. Supreme Court, we might now be on the precipice of a new chapter. Pritchard and Thompson’s superb book, A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court, illuminates with rich archival detail how the Court’s view of the securities laws and the SEC have changed over time and how individuals have influenced this history. The book provides an invaluable resource for understanding nearly a century’s worth of Supreme Court jurisprudence in the area of securities law and much needed context for …

Three Stories: A Comment On Pritchard & Thompson’S A History Of Securities Laws In The Supreme Court, Harwell Wells

Seattle University Law Review

Adam Pritchard and Robert Thompson’s A History of Securities Laws in the Supreme Court should stand for decades as the definitive work on the Federal securities laws’ career in the Supreme Court across the twentieth century.1 Like all good histories, it both tells a story and makes an argument. The story recounts how the Court dealt with the major securities laws, as well the agency charged with enforcing them, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the rules it promulgated, from the 1930s into the twenty-first century. But the book does not just string together a series of events, “one …

On The Value Of History: A Review Of A.C. Pritchard & Robert B. Thompson’S A History Of Securities Law In The Supreme Court, Joel Seligman

Seattle University Law Review

A.C. Pritchard and Bob Thompson have written a splendid history of securities law decisions in the Supreme Court. Their book is exemplary because of its detailed use of the long unpublished papers of Supreme Court justices, including those of Harry Blackmun, William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter and Lewis F. Powell, primary sources which included correspondence with other Justices and law clerks as well as interviews with law clerks. The use of these primary sources recounted throughout the text and 67 pages of End Notes deepens our understanding of the intentions of the Justices and sharpens our understanding of the conflicts …