Constitutional Law Commons^™

Anonymous Expression And "Unmasking" In Civil And Criminal Proceedings, Leeza Arbatman, John Vilasenor

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

On Controlling The Supreme Court: Is There A Future For American Law?, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Who Can Protect Black Protest?, Brandon Hasbrouck

Scholarly Articles

Police violence both as the cause of and response to the racial justice protests following George Floyd’s murder called fresh attention to the need for legal remedies to hold police officers accountable. In addition to the well-publicized issue of qualified immunity, the differential regimes for asserting civil rights claims against state and federal agents for constitutional rights violations create a further barrier to relief. Courts have only recognized damages as a remedy for such abuses in limited contexts against federal employees under the Bivens framework. The history of Black protest movements reveals the violent responses police have to such challenges …

The Antiracist Constitution, Brandon Hasbrouck

Scholarly Articles

Our Constitution, as it is and as it has been interpreted by our courts, serves white supremacy. The twin projects of abolition and reconstruction remain incomplete, derailed first by openly hostile institutions, then by the subtler lie that a colorblind Constitution would bring about the end of racism. Yet, in its debut in Supreme Court jurisprudence, colorblind constitutionalism promised that facially discriminatory laws were unnecessary for the perpetuation of white supremacy. That promise has been fulfilled across nearly every field of law as modern white supremacists adopt insidious, facially neutral laws to ensure the oppression of Black people and other …

When Police Volunteer To Kill, Alexandra L. Klein

Scholarly Articles

The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection, yet states continue to struggle with drug shortages and botched executions. Some states have authorized alternative methods of execution, including the firing squad. Utah, which has consistently carried out firing squad executions throughout its history, relies on police officers from the jurisdiction where the crime took place to volunteer to carry out these executions. This represents a plausible--and probable--method for other states in conducting firing squad executions.

Public and academic discussion of the firing squad has centered on questions of pain and suffering. It has not engaged with the consequences …

Movement Judges, Brandon Hasbrouck

Scholarly Articles

Judges matter. The opinions of a few impact the lives of many. Judges romanticize their own impartiality, but apathy in the face of systems of oppression favors the status quo and clears the way for conservative agendas to take root. The lifetime appointments of federal judges, the deliberate weaponization of the bench by reactionary opponents of the New Deal and progressive social movements, and the sheer inertia of judicial self-restraint have led to the conservative capture of the courts. By contrast, empathy for the oppressed and downtrodden renders substantive justice possible and leaves room for unsuccessful litigants to accept unfavorable …

Juries, Democracy, And Petty Crime, John D. King

Scholarly Articles

The right to trial by jury in criminal cases is basic to the design of American criminal justice and to the structure of American government. Guaranteed by Article III of the Constitution, the Sixth Amendment, and every one of the original state constitutions, the criminal jury was seen as critically important not only to the protection of individual rights but also to the architecture of American democracy. The vast majority of criminal prosecutions today, however, are resolved without even the prospect of community review by a jury. Despite the textual clarity of the guarantee, the Supreme Court has long recognized …

Movement Constitutionalism, Brandon Hasbrouck

Scholarly Articles

The white supremacy at the heart of the American criminal legal system works to control Black, Brown, and poor people through mass incarceration. Poverty and incarceration act in a vicious circle, with reactionaries mounting a desperate defense against any attempt to mitigate economic exploitation or carceral violence. Ending the cycle will require replacing this inequitable system with the life- and liberty-affirming institutions of abolition democracy. The path to abolition democracy is arduous, but abolitionists can press for change through what I coin “movement constitutionalism.” Movement constitutionalism is the process by which grassroots abolitionist movements shift—through demands and in solidarity with …

Eminent Domain And Unfettered Discretion: Lessons From A History Of U.S. Territorial Takings, Jill M. Fraley

Scholarly Articles

Eminent domain is a minimal constitutional protection for private property and one that is subject to far more discretion than previously recognized by scholars. This Article traces a novel legal history of land takings within the U.S. Territories, focusing on some of the most egregious and controversial incidents and problematic patterns originating within eminent domain law. Comparing this history to recent research that demonstrates how takings in the States have disproportionately impacted Black communities, this Article articulates three patterns of injustices in takings echoing between Black mainland communities and indigenous communities in the Territories: large-scale federally funded actions, local government …

El Juicio Político O Impeachment En Los Estados Unidos, Robert S. Barker

Barker Papers

SUMARIO: I. El origen ingles - II. La constitucion de los estados unidos.- 111. El primer caso: el caso Blount.- IV. El caso Chase. - V. El caso Johnson. - VI. El caso Belknap. - VII. La controversia Watergate, 1972-197 4. - VIII. Los casos Clinton y Trump. - IX. Los ca sos contra jueces de tribunales federales inferiores, 1873-2010. - X. El caso Walter Nixon. - XI. Cuestiones no resueltas. - XII. Conclusion. - XIII. Bibliografia.

SUMMARY: I. The English origin - II. The Constitution of the United States.- 111. The first case: the Blount case.- IV. The Chase …

Curbing Reversals Of Non-Textual Constitutional Rights, James G. Hodge, Jr., Jennifer L. Piatt, Erica N. White, Madisyn Puchebner, Summer Ghaith

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

A Series Of Missed Opportunities: The Washington Supreme Court's Lapse In Recognizing And Advancing Washington's Due Process Jurisprudence, Holly Broadbent

Selected Articles on Washington State Constitution History

No abstract provided.

Reshaping Washington's Public Lands Trust Doctrine, Audrey Bell

Selected Articles on Washington State Constitution History

In this paper, I will discuss how Washington state’s trust duties related to federally-granted public lands management have and have not been reconciled with article XVI, section 1 of the Washington constitution. First, I will provide a foundation for the management of federally-granted public lands and the storied history of Congress's intent in providing land grants to the states. Next, I will examine the provisions of the Enabling Act of 1889 ("Enabling Act") and the Washington constitution that govern the management of those granted lands. Third, I will chart the historical treatment of Washington state trust duties related to the …

Batting Two-For-Eleven: Tim Eyman's Initiatives And The Washington Supreme Court, Taylor N. Larson

Selected Articles on Washington State Constitution History

No abstract provided.

This Earthly Frame: The Making Of American Secularism, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.”

Redefining The Badges And Incidents Of Slavery, Nicholas Serafin

Badges & Incidents

No abstract provided.

Passcodes, Protection, And Legal Practicality: The Necessity Of A Digital Fifth Amendment, Ethan Swierczewski

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Uprooting Roe, B. Jessie Hill, Mae Kuykendall

Faculty Publications

The U.S. Supreme Court is likely poised to overturn Roe v. Wade in a matter of months. Yet, the roots of Roe run both wide and deep, and to uproot Roe would be to uproot the Constitution’s promise of gender equality in a radical way. Just as the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence of reproductive liberty freed people with reproductive capacity from having their destinies and status tied to their biology, an uprooting of Roe and its companion principles will restore the iron rules of gender difference and return women to their common-law status as lacking self-ownership and equal citizenship.

Response To Wasserman And Rhodes: The Texas S.B. 8 Litigation And “Our Formalism”, B. Jessie Hill

Faculty Publications

In Solving the Procedural Puzzles of the Texas Heartbeat Act and Its Imitators: The Limits and Opportunities of Offensive Litigation, Professors Howard Wasserman and Rocky Rhodes explain why the U.S. Supreme Court correctly rejected the pre-enforcement legal challenge brought by abortion providers challenging Texas’s draconian abortion law, S.B. 8, which was specifically designed to evade such challenges. Wasserman and Rhodes also provide grounds for hope on the part of future similarly situated challengers to S.B. 8 copycat laws, outlining a route by which the clinics could have engaged in offensive federal-court litigation against “any person” plaintiffs who seek to …

Professional Speech At Scale, Cassandra Burke Robertson, Sharona Hoffman

Faculty Publications

Regulatory actions affecting professional speech are facing new challenges from all sides. On one side, the Supreme Court has grown increasingly protective of professionals’ free speech rights, and it has subjected regulations affecting that speech to heightened levels of scrutiny that call into question traditional regulatory practices in both law and medicine. On the other side, technological developments, including the growth of massive digital platforms and the introduction of artificial intelligence programs, have created brand new problems of regulatory scale. Professional speech is now able to reach a wide audience faster than ever before, creating risks that misinformation will cause …