Constitutional Law Commons^™

The Politics And Incentives Of First Amendment Coverage, Frederick Schauer

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

March 14, 2015: Would Prosperity Matter?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

The Privacies Of Life: Automatic License Plate Recognition Is Unconstitutional Under The Mosaic Theory Of Fourth Amendment Privacy Law, Jessica Gutierrez-Alm

Hamline Law Review

Abstract

Dying In Original Sin Vis-À-Vis Living In Disgrace—In Defense Of The Right To Socio-Eugenic Abortion As Personal Liberty, Jayadevan V. R. Dr.

Hamline Law Review

Abstract

March 11, 2015: Well, Some Dare Call It Treason, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Well, Some Dare Call it Treason“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

The Heritage Guide To The Constitution, Second Edition: What Has Changed Over The Past Decade, And What Lies Ahead?, David Forte, Edwin Meese Iii, Matthew Spalding

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, first released in 2005, brought together more than 100 of the nation’s best legal experts to provide line-by-line examination of each clause of the Constitution and its contemporary meaning—the first such comprehensive commentary to appear in many decades. The Heritage Guide to the Constitution: Fully Revised Second Edition takes into account a decade of Supreme Court decisions and legal scholarship on such issues as gun rights, religious freedom, campaign finance, civil rights, and health care reform. The Founders’ guiding principles remain unchanged, yet a number of Supreme Court decisions over the past decade …

March 7, 2015: Watching The Left Behind Movie, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

Jurisdiction - The Supreme Court Upholds The Constitutionality Of The Jurisdictional Grant Of The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act Over A Suit Between An Alien And A Foreign Sovereign In United States District Court, Stephen E. Farish

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Multistate Export Trade Promotion Under The Export Trading Company Act Of 1982, Joseph M. Gannam

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Violently Possessed: Johnson As The Vehicle For Limiting Sentencing Enhancement Under The Armed Career Criminals Act, Jonathan Robe

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar

This commentary previews an upcoming Supreme Court case, Johnson v. United States in which the Court will decide whether conviction for mere possession of a short-barreled shotgun qualifies as a "violent felony" that warrants sentence-enhancement under the Armed Career Criminals Act. The Author argues that he plain text of the statute and the Court's prior cases on the issue suggest tat convictions for "mere possession" do not satisfy the definition of "violent felony" and that the Court should overturn the Eighth Circuit's ruling upholding Johnson's sentence enhancement.

Is That A Threat?: Elonis V. United States And The Standard Of Intent For True Threat Convictions, Peter S. Larson

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar

This commentary analyzes the Supreme Court case Elonis v. United States where the Court will determine the applicable criminal-intent standard required to convict a defendant for threatening speech. After a series of violent Facebook posts against coworkers and his estranged wife, Petitioner Elonis was convicted for making so-called "true threats" of violence--speech not granted First-Amendment protection. Elonis argues that the prosecution should have been required to prove that he actually had the intent to threaten people when he wrote the posts, not simply that a reasonable person would find the posts threatening. The Author argues that the Court should rule …

Cases, Controversies, And Diversity, F. Andrew Hessick

Northwestern University Law Review

Article III’s diversity jurisdiction provisions extend the federal judicial power to state law controversies between different states or nations and their respective citizens. When exercising diversity jurisdiction, the federal judiciary does not function in its usual role of protecting federal interests or ensuring the uniformity of federal law. Instead, federal courts operate as alternative state courts for resolving disputes between diverse parties. But federal courts often cannot act as alternative state courts because of Article III justiciability doctrines such as standing, ripeness, and mootness. These doctrines define when a federal court may act. But they do not apply to state …

(Un)Equal Protection: Why Gender Equality Depends On Discrimination, Keith Cunningham-Parmeter

Northwestern University Law Review

Most accounts of the Supreme Court’s equal protection jurisprudence describe the Court’s firm opposition to sex discrimination. But while the Court famously invalidated several sex-based laws at the end of the twentieth century, it also issued many other, less-celebrated decisions that sanctioned sex-specific classifications in some circumstances. Examining these long-ignored cases that approved of sex discrimination, this Article explains how the Court’s rulings in this area have often rejected the principle of formal equality in favor of broader antisubordination concerns. Outlining a new model of equal protection that authorizes certain forms of sex discrimination, (Un)Equal Protection advocates for one particular …

March 4, 2015: The Foreign Leader Speaks, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

Association For Civil Rights In Israel V. Airports Authority, Asher Grunis, Miriam Naor, Elyakim Rubinstein

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.]

Facts: The petition concerned the security procedures for screening Israeli citizens at Israeli airports. The Petitioner’s primary claim was that Israel’s Arab citizens are generally subjected to stricter security checks than Israel’s Jewish citizens. The Petitioner argued that employing ethnicity as a criterion for the rigorousness of airport security screening of Israeli citizens is fundamentally unacceptable. The petition was submitted in 2007, but the …

March 1, 2015: Is There Something Wrong?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

A Battle Of The Amendments: Why Ending Discrimination In The Courtroom May Inhibit A Criminal Defendant’S Right To An Impartial Jury, Gina M. Chiappetta

Fordham Law Review

    Since the U.S. Supreme Court began limiting the exercise of peremptory challenges to safeguard potential jurors from discrimination, it has faced a nearly impossible task. The Court has attempted to safeguard a juror’s equal protection rights without eradicating the peremptory challenge’s ability to preserve a criminal defendant’s right to an impartial jury. Under the current legal framework, it is not certain whether either constitutional right is adequately protected. This Note examines the history of the Supreme Court’s limitation on peremptory challenges. It then discusses the current federal circuit split over whether peremptory challenges should be further limited. Finally, this Note …

Marriage, The Constitution, And The Future Of Family Law, Mark Strasser

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Contraception As A Sex Equality Right, Neil S. Siegel, Reva B. Siegel

Faculty Scholarship

Challenges to federal law requiring insurance coverage of contraception are occurring on the eve of the 50th Anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Griswold v. Connecticut. It is a good time to reflect on the values served by protecting women’s access to contraception.

In 1965, the Court ruled in Griswold that a law criminalizing the use of contraception violated the privacy of the marriage relationship. Griswoldoffered women the most significant constitutional protection since the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote, constitutional protection as important as the cases prohibiting sex discrimination that the Court would …

The Death Penalty: Should The Judge Or The Jury Decide Who Dies?, Valerie P. Hans, John H. Blume, Theodore Eisenberg, Amelia Courtney Hritz, Sheri L. Johnson, Caisa Elizabeth Royer, Martin T. Wells

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article addresses the effect of judge versus jury decision making through analysis of a database of all capital sentencing phase hearing trials in the State of Delaware from 1977– 2007. Over the three decades of the study, Delaware shifted responsibility for death penalty sentencing from the jury to the judge. Currently, Delaware is one of the handful of states that gives the judge the final decision-making authority in capital trials. Controlling for a number of legally relevant and other predictor variables, we find that the shift to judge sentencing significantly increased the number of death sentences. Statutory aggravating factors, …