Constitutional Law Commons^™

You Have The Right To Be Confused! Understanding Miranda After 50 Years, Bryan Taylor

Pace Law Review

Part I of this article briefly explores the background and historical context that ultimately led to the Miranda decision. As the late Dr. Carl Sagan once said, “you have to know the past to understand the present.” Understanding the circumstances and cases leading up to Miranda helps in the overall application of Miranda to cases of today. Part II addresses whether a statement should be allowed into evidence and provides a practical working approach to conduct a Miranda analysis. This innovative approach provides a step-by-step process in determining the admissibility of statements pursuant to Miranda and its progeny. This process …

Not In My Hospital: The Future Of State Statutes Requiring Abortion Providers To Maintain Admitting Privileges At Local Hospitals, Daniel J. Glass

Akron Law Review

In recent years, state legislatures have enacted a variety of restrictive statutes making it more difficult for abortion providers to serve their patients, typically in the name of health and safety. Those opposing these restrictive statutes commonly refer to them as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws. This Note discusses admitting privileges statutes, which require that abortion providers maintain permissions with a local hospital to admit and treat their patients. Admitting privileges statutes have been challenged in federal courts, but the resulting decisions have been inconsistent. This Note compares the analysis used by federal circuits and district courts in …

Fundamental Unenumerated Rights Under The Ninth Amendment And The Privileges Or Immunities Clause, Adam Lamparello

Akron Law Review

The failure to link the Ninth Amendment and Privileges or Immunities Clause for the purpose of creating unenumerated fundamental rights has been a persistent but rarely discussed aspect of the Court’s jurisprudence. That should change. There need not be an ongoing tension between the Court’s counter-majoritarian role and the authority of states to govern through the democratic process. If the Constitution’s text gives the Court a solid foundation upon which to recognize new rights and thereby create a more just society, then the exercise of that power is fundamentally democratic. The Ninth Amendment and Privileges or Immunities Clause provides that …

The Five Days In June When Values Died In American Law, Bruce Ledewitz

Akron Law Review

During a five day period in June, 1992, every Justice on the United States Supreme Court joined one or the other of two opinions that denied the objectivity of values—either Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion in Lee v. Weisman or Justice Scalia’s dissent in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Both of these opinions expressed the view that normative judgments are merely human constructions. This moment represents symbolically the death of values in American law. The arrival of nihilism at the heart of American law is a world-changing event for law that must be acknowledged.

The death of values was announced by …

Liberty At The Borders Of Private Law, Donald J. Smythe

Akron Law Review

Liberty is both dependent upon and limited by the State. The State protects individuals from the coercion of others, but paradoxically, it must exercise coercion itself in doing so. Unfortunately, the reliance on the State to deter coercion raises the possibility that the State’s powers of coercion might be abused. There is, not surprisingly, therefore, a wide range of literature on the relationship between law and liberty, but most of it focuses on the relationship between public law and liberty. This Article focuses on the relationship between private law and liberty. Private laws are enforced by courts. Since the judiciary …

The Water Cycle Boogie: Clean Water Act Jurisdiction, Home Rule, And Water Law, Colin W. Maguire

Et Cetera

The EPA and US Army Corps of Engineers’ agency rule regarding the definition of “Waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act increased jurisdictional assertions by as much as 5%. What’s the big deal? This violates the Home Rule of state and local governments. This violation also creates concerns where many property owners are not sure if they need federal permits to develop land under the Clean Water Act. With issues like this new Clean Water Act rule, the drought conditions in the Western U.S., and international concerns regarding fresh water, water law is a critical area which …

Sexual Minority Stigma And System Justification Theory: How Changing The Status Quo Impacts Marriage And Housing Equality, Jordan A. Blenner

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Sexual minorities (i.e. lesbians and gay men) experience systemic discrimination throughout the United States. Prior to the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), in many states, same-sex couples could not marry and sexual minorities were not protected from sexual orientation housing discrimination (Human Rights Campaign, 2015). The current, two-experiment study applied Jost and Banaji’s (1994) System Justification Theory to marriage and housing discrimination. When sexual minorities question dissimilar treatment, thereby threatening the status quo, members of the heterosexual majority rationalize sexual minority discrimination to maintain their dominant status (Alexander, 2001; Brescoll, Uhlmann, & Newman, 2013; Citizens for Equal …

The Dtsa: The Litigator's Full-Employment Act, Sharon K. Sandeen

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Civil litigation is expensive, both for the party bringing suit and the party that must defend against such claims. For a variety of reasons, not the least of which are the usual requests for preliminary relief and protective orders, trade secret litigation is particularly expensive. These costs can have a crippling effect on small businesses and start-up companies that are accused of trade secret misappropriation, often resulting in litigation expenses that exceed the alleged harm to the plaintiff. Such litigation is particularly costly and unjust in cases where the plaintiff asserts rights that, due to common misunderstandings about the limited …

November 24, 2015: I Guess Trump Really Could Win The Republican Nomination, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “I Guess Trump Really Could Win the Republican Nomination“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Doe V. Friedman, Neal Hendel, Anat Baron, Uri Shoham

Translated Opinions

[This abstract is not part of the Court's opinion and is provided for the reader's convenience. It has been translated from a Hebrew version prepared by Nevo Press Ltd. and is used with its kind permission.]

A transgender woman ended her life, and, in documents she left behind, she made clear that she wished for her body to be cremated and that most of her ashes be scattered at sea and some be buried in a place for her memory. In her will she asked that the First Respondent act to execute her wishes – this, among others, because she …

November 22, 2015: Reason Is Not An Alternative To Religion, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ Reason is Not an Alternative to Religion“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

False Universalism Of Global Governance Theories: Global Constitutionalism, Global Administrative Law, International Criminal Institutions And The Global South, Sujith Xavier

PhD Dissertations

Why are theories of global governance unsatisfactory? Why are theories of global governance unable to integrate the lived realities of the people of the global South? International law and its institutions are growing at an unprecedented speed and this expansion has captured the curiosity of international lawyers and international law scholars. As international law and its institutions continue to grow, there are concurrent concerns regarding their democratic foundations. A large body of scholarship encapsulates these anxieties through the prism of global governance. In particular, two specific theories of global governance, global constitutionalism, and global administrative law, seek to introduce ideas …

Obergefell V. Hodges: How The Supreme Court Should Have Decided The Case, Adam Lamparello

ConLawNOW

In Obergefell, et al. v. Hodges, Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion legalizing same-sex marriage was based on “the mystical aphorisms of a fortune cookie,” and “indefensible as a matter of constitutional law.” Kennedy’s opinion was comprised largely of philosophical ramblings about liberty that have neither a constitutional foundation nor any conceptual limitation. The fictional opinion below arrives at the same conclusion, but the reasoning is based on equal protection rather than due process principles. The majority opinion holds that same-sex marriage bans violate the Equal Protection Clause because they: (1) discriminate on the basis of gender; (2) promote gender-based stereotypes; and …

November 19, 2015: How To Defeat Isis, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

Noriega V. Activision/Blizzard: The First Amendment Right To Use A Historical Figure's Likeness In Video Games, Joshua Sinclair

Duke Law & Technology Review

Panama’s former dictator, Manuel Noriega, recently sued Activision Blizzard in the California Superior Court for using his likeness and image in the popular video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops II.” In his complaint, Noriega alleged that the use of his likeness violated his right of publicity. Former New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, came to Activision’s defense, and filed a motion to dismiss, which was granted. In granting Activision’s motion, the court held that Activision’s use of Noriega’s likeness was transformative and did not violate his right of publicity. This Issue Brief argues that the California Superior Court should not …

November 15, 2015: None, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “None“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Naiming The States Where Loving Will Be Recognized: On Tea Leaves, Horizontal Federalism, And Same-Sex Marriage, Mark Strasser

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Thinking Under The Box--Public Choice And Constitutional Law Perspectives On City-Level Environmental Policy, Harri Kalimo, Reid Lifset

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

November 13, 2015: Heidegger’S Judeo-Christian, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Heidegger’s Judeo-Christian“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Too Much Collateral Damage; Fatca: The Well-Intentioned, Yet Misguided And Unconstitutional, Tax Law, Zac Delap

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This paper will examine FATCA in five parts: beginning with an introduction in Part I, Part II will provide the pertinent background that gave rise to the law, Part III will present the essential elements of FATCA, Part IV will offer pertinent liberty and constitutional arguments against FATCA, and Part V will analyze each argument's possibility of succeeding.