Constitutional Law Commons^™

Appointed Counsel And Jury Trial: The Rights That Undermine The Other Rights, Russell L. Christopher

Washington and Lee Law Review

Do the Sixth Amendment rights to appointed counsel and jury trial unconstitutionally conflict with defendants’ other constitutional rights? For indigents charged with felonies, Gideon v. Wainwright guarantees the right to appointed counsel; for misdemeanors, Scott v. Illinois limits the right to indigents receiving the most severe authorized punishment—imprisonment.Duncan v. Illinois limits the right to jury trial to defendants charged with serious offenses. Consequently, the greater the jeopardy faced by defendants, the greater the eligibility for appointed counsel and jury trial. But defendants’ other constitutional rights generally facilitate just the opposite— minimizing jeopardy by reducing charges, lessening the likelihood of …

The Supreme Court's Constitutional "Bright Line": Preempting Authority Of 47 Of 50 States, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

The Supreme Court unanimously stripped 47 of the 50 states of their authority to regulate key commerce. In Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing, the Court withdrew from state authority the power over law applicable to, and now controlling, what is identified as the second most important invention in history.

The transcendent constitutional question is whether this unanimous Supreme Court decision expands constitutional “field preemption” to permanently withhold from 47 states this power, or only employs “conflict preemption” to preempt this one single challenged state regulation. This article examines and esolves that the Court chose “field preemption” to permanently crimp and …

Constitutional Clause Aggregation And The Marijuana Crimes, Scott W. Howe

Washington and Lee Law Review

An important question for our time concerns whether the Constitution could establish a right to engage in certain marijuana-related activities. Several states have now legalized cannabis, within strict limits, for recreational purposes, and that number will grow. Yet, some states will not promptly legalize but, instead, continue to criminalize, or only “decriminalize” in minor ways, and the federal criminalization statutes also will likely survive for a time. There currently is no recognized right under the Constitution to possess, use, cultivate, or distribute cannabis for recreational purposes, even in small amounts, and traditional, single-clause arguments for such a right are weak. …

A Legal Frankenstein’S Monster: The Complete Bar Order In Securities Fraud Class Action Lawsuits, Jonathan C. Stanley

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Missing American Jury: Restoring The Fundamental Constitutional Role Of The Criminal, Civil, And Grand Juries, Anna Roberts

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

This is a bold book. Professor Thomas urges that the jury—criminal, civil, and grand—be recognized as a fourth “branch” (p. 5). She asserts that procedures that have contributed to the reduction of the jury’s power—including summary judgment and state prosecution without grand juries—are unconstitutional. And, as a Plan B if her constitutional arguments do not prevail, she proposes big changes that include informing juries about sentence exposure, presenting juries with any charges that were offered in plea bargaining, and requiring that juries justify their verdicts.

Secret Law, Jonathan Manes

Journal Articles

The law cannot be a secret hidden from the public. This proposition strikes most of us as uncontroversial—a basic premise of any legal order committed to democratic accountability and the rule of law. Yet in this country secret law not only exists, but has become an entrenched feature of contemporary national security governance. From NSA surveillance to terrorist watch lists to targeted killings, the most controversial national security programs of our time have all been governed by secret rules, secret directives, and secret legal interpretations.

This Article sheds new light on this deeply unsettling state of affairs. It pushes beyond …

Dueling Denominators And The Demise Of Lucas, Stewart E. Sterk

Articles

In Murr v. Wisconsin, the Supreme Court outlined a process for ascertaining the denominator in takings cases – an issue that arises both with respect to Penn Central takings claims and Lucas takings claims. The underpinnings of Penn Central claims and Lucas claims are not identical; Penn Central’s primary concern is assuring fairness to landowners, while the focus of Lucas is on restricting government efforts to bypass the condemnation process. Although this difference in focus might suggest a difference in appropriate denominator, the Court’s multi-factor balancing approach apparently applies to all takings claims. Although the Court’s approach is consistent with …

Pardoning Immigrants, Peter L. Markowitz, Lindsay Nash

Articles

In the waning days of the Obama Administration, with Trump’s promised immigration crackdown looming, over one hundred advocacy organizations joined forces to urge President Obama to permanently protect hundreds of thousands of immigrants from deportation by pardoning their breaches of civil immigration law. That pardon never materialized and, as expected, the Trump enforcement regime is sowing terror and devastation in immigrant communities nationwide. While it seems unfathomable that the current president would use his pardon power to mitigate even the most extreme applications of our nation’s immigration laws, there is unfortunately no indication that the harshest aspects of the immigration …

No Cake For You: Discrimination, Dignity, And Refusals To Serve, William Araiza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Middle-Class Constitution: A Response, Ganesh Sitaraman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

I am very grateful to the Boston University Law Review for bringing together such a terrific group of scholars to engage with my book, The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic. It is a testament to the work and excellence of the Boston University Law Review that they pulled together such an intellectually engaging group of commentators. My deepest thanks also to Professors Markovits, Rahman, Lyons, Epstein, and Somin for taking the time to read the book and comment on it.

The Cunning Of Reason: Michael Klarman's The Framers' Coup, Charles Fried

Michigan Law Review

A review of Michael J. Klarman, The Framers' Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution.

Restoring Congress's Role In The Modern Administrative State, Christopher J. Walker

Michigan Law Review

A review of Josh Chafetzm Congress's Constitution: Legislative Authority and Separation of Powers.

Admissibility Of First Time In-Court Eyewitness Identifications: An Argument For Additional Due Process Protections In New York, Dakota Kann

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Menggagas Pembatasan Pembentukan Dan Materi Muatan Perppu: Studi Perbandingan Pengaturan Dan Penggunaan Perppu Di Negara-Negara Presidensial, Fitra Arsil

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Government regulation in lieu of law or ‘Perppu’arrangement in Indonesia is more limited than other types of emergency regulations issued by the president in various countries. Such arrangement apprently is not sufficient to be considered as limiting the issuance of the emergency regulations. Some presidential state countries have made changes to provide sufficient restrictions to presidential legislative power. The limitation is not only in terms of its formation procedures but also on the material which can be regulated by the Perppu. Therefore, lessons from other jurisdictionsindeed inspires Indonesia to limit the pasage of Perppu

Konstitusionalitas Ketetapan Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat Dalam Hierarki Peraturan Perundang-Undangan, Meirina Fajarwati

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The Provision of the People Consultative Assembly is a kind and hierarchy of legislations in 2011 Law No. 12 on the Establisment of Law. The Provision of the People Consultative Assembly assignments again in hierarchy of legislation after being eliminated in the hierarchy of legislation with law number 10 years 2004 had created problems because that Provision can’t be judicial review by constitutional court or supreme court. The Provision of the people Consultative Assembly that can’t be judicial review has aroused problems related to exsistence of that Provision as stipulated in law number 12 years 2011

Penerapan Uji Proporsionalitas Dalam Kasus Pembubaran Partai Politik: Sebuah Perbandingan, Bisariyadi -

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The Indonesian Constitutional Court has no jurisprudence related to the application of proportionality test. In comparative law perspective, proportionality test is referred to as "the ultimate rule of law”. This study aims to provide a consideration to the possibility of applying proportionality test when the Constitutional Court needs to deals with the issue of political parties dissolution. In countries that have examined cases of political parties dissolution, the proportionality test is a method of legal reasoning to reach the decision. This studyis conducted by comparing verdicts from national and regional courts, which have dealt with the dissolution of political parties …

Gagasan Pengadilan Khusus Untuk Sengketa Hasil Pemilhan Kepala Daerah, Qurrata Ayuni

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The Constitutional Court in Decision Number 97 / PUU-XI / 2013 states that the dispute over the head of region election is not included in the authority of its constitutionality. The Lawmakers follow up this ruling by initiating a special judicial body that will hear disputes over the results of head of region election. Special judicial bodies should have been formed before the head of region election simultaneously. In the transitional period, before the establishment of a special judicial body, disputes over the results of head of region election are still handled by the Constitutional Court in 2015 and 2017. …

Trump V. Hawaii: Brief Of Constitutional Law Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondents, Richard Primus

Appellate Briefs

Amici are constitutional law scholars. They submit this brief to identify a distinct legal principle compelling the conclusion that the President's travel ban proclamation is unconstitutional: the long-settled prohibition on governmental acts based on animus toward a particular religious group. A full list of Amici is attached as an appendix to this brief.

President Trump has repeatedly espoused the animus that motivated his promises-and his subsequent acts-to ban a large number of Muslims from entering the United States. As a result of his statements, a decision by this Court upholding the Proclamation would deliver a powerful blow to popular faith …

March 28, 2018: Is Donald Trump The Antichrist?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Is Donald Trump the Antichrist?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Dassey V. Dittmann: Brief Amicus Curiae Of Professors Of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, And Constitutional Law In Support Of Petitioner, Samuel R. Gross, Yale Kamisar

Appellate Briefs

Amici curiae are academics who focus on criminal procedure and Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment law. (A list of the amici curiae is attached as Appendix A.) Their principal interest in this case is proper application of clear Supreme Court precedent in assessing the voluntariness of the confession given by the juvenile suspect in this case. Amici file this brief out of concern that some lower courts, including the court below, are straying from this Court's clear mandates in applying the totality-of-the-circumstances test to confessions given by juveniles with intellectual impairments. Amici write to provide a historical overview of this …