Constitutional Law Commons^™

Does The Ministerial Exception Protect A Minister's Humiliating Comments?, Yiting Feng

SLU Law Journal Online

The Seventh Circuit case of Demkovich v. St. Andrew the Apostle Parish applied the ministerial exception to bar a fired minister’s claim of a hostile work environment. In this article, Yiting Feng lists the reason why she disagrees with the majority opinion and leans towards the dissenting opinion.

September 16, 2021: Forgiveness, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Forgiveness“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Did Pa. Supreme Court Justice David Wecht Herald The Death Of God?, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

I Am Resigning From The Pro-Life Movement, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

September 11, 2021: Twenty Years Later, 9/11 Is Finally Over, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Twenty Years Later, 9/11 is finally over“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 10, 2021: Secular Repentence, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Secular Repentence“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

The Steal In The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, Explained, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Why The Civil Rights Cases Belong In The Anti-Canon: Black Citizenship, The Fourteenth Amendment, And Judicial Interposition, Matthew Norman, Christopher Bryant

ConLawNOW

This essay analyzes the Supreme Court’s ruling in The Civil Rights Cases (1883) and surveys both contemporary and scholarly responses to it. Citizenship should mean something, and the Court’s ruling in The Civil Rights Cases invalidated much of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, the most ambitious and progressive civil rights legislation that Congress enacted prior to 1964. When the Supreme Court issued its decision in Dred Scott, Abraham Lincoln warned of a sequel that would nationalize slavery. While the Thirteenth Amendment eliminated the possibility of such a decision, Dred Scott is widely recognized as one of the Court’s …

Solidarity As A Constitutional Value, Tamar Hostovsky Brandes

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Restoring Causality In Attenuation: Establishing The Breadth Of A Fourth Amendment Violation, Bryan H. Ward

West Virginia Law Review

When the police violate a suspect’s Fourth Amendment rights, what often follows is the discovery of incriminating evidence. Sometimes the evidence is discovered directly after the Fourth Amendment violation. In other situations, the evidence comes by a more indirect route and may occur long after the original Fourth Amendment violation. Courts struggle when trying to decide if the discovery of this indirectly obtained evidence was caused by the police misconduct. This causal question is important because causality acts as a limiting principle when deciding when to apply the exclusionary rule. A basic view of the exclusionary rule suggests that evidence …

Scrutiny-Determination Avoidance In First Amendment Cases: Laudable Minimalism Or Condemnable Evasion?, Clay Calvert

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Due Process On Campus: Where Do Procedural Rights Come From, And What Do They Require?, R. George Wright

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Invisible Circumstances Of Notice, Robin Effron

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Caperton V. A.T. Massey Coal Co.: A Ten-Year Retrospective On Its Impact On Law And The Judiciary, Amam Mcleod

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Avoidance And The Federal Common Law Of Patent Subject Matter Eligibility, Sam F. Halabi

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Call For Action: Provinces And Territories Must Protect Our Genetic Information, Leah Hutt, Elaine Gibson, Erin Kennedy

Dalhousie Law Journal

The Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (GNDA), passed by Parliament in 2017, seeks to protect Canadians’ genetic information. The GNDA establishes certain criminal prohibitions to the use of genetic information and also amends federal employment and human rights legislation to protect against genetic discrimination. However, we argue that the GNDA alone is insufficient to protect Canadians given constitutional limitations on the powers of the federal government. Areas of profound importance relating to genetic discrimination are governed by the provinces and territories. We identify three key areas of provincial/territorial jurisdiction relevant to protection against genetic discrimination and outline the applicable legislative environments. We …

States And Systemic Risk: An Analysis Of The Dodd-Frank Act’S (Un)Cooperative Federalism, Daniel A. Lyons

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court's Reticent Qualified Immunity Retreat, Katherine Mims Crocker

Faculty Scholarship

The recent outcry against qualified immunity, a doctrine that disallows damages actions against government officials for a wide swath of constitutional claims, has been deafening. But when the Supreme Court in November 2020 and February 2021 invalidated grants of qualified immunity based on reasoning at the heart of the doctrine for the first time since John Roberts became Chief Justice, the response was muted. With initial evaluations and competing understandings coming from legal commentators in the months since, this Essay explores what these cases appear to say about qualified immunity for today and tomorrow.

The Essay traces idealistic, pessimistic, and …

R. C. Bissonnette And The (Un)Constitutionality Of Consecutive Periods Of Parole Ineligibility For A Life Sentence: Why The Qcca Got It Right And Why Section 745.51 Should Never Be Re-Written, Adelina Iftene

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article reviews the constitutional arguments upheld by the QCCA in Bissonnette and weighs them against the challenges that trial judges have encountered in applying s. 745.51 since 2012. By drawing on a qualitative review of cases in which s. 745.51 has been applied, as well as Charter principles, sentencing case law, and international practices, this article posits that the QCCA was correct in its approach to s. 745.51, both in finding it unconstitutional and in finding that the provision should not be read down to render it constitutional. This article advances the central argument that, in the context of …

The Supreme Court's Reticent Qualified Immunity Retreat, Katherine Mims Crocker

Faculty Publications

The recent outcry against qualified immunity, a doctrine that disallows damages actions against government officials for a wide swath of constitutional claims, has been deafening. But when the Supreme Court in November 2020 and February 2021 invalidated grants of qualified immunity based on reasoning at the heart of the doctrine for the first time since John Roberts became Chief Justice, the response was muted. With initial evaluations and competing understandings coming from legal commentators in the months since, this Essay explores what these cases appear to say about qualified immunity for today and tomorrow.

The Essay traces idealistic, pessimistic, and …