Constitutional Law Commons^™

Public Law At The Cathedral: Enjoining The Government, Michael T. Morley

Scholarly Publications

Conventional wisdom provides that injunctive relief in public law cases is generally unnecessary, because a declaratory judgment and the threat of damages are enough to induce the government to comply with a court’s ruling (except, perhaps, in the institutional reform context). Consistent with this prevailing understanding, most scholars to apply Calabresi and Melamed’s Cathedral framework to public law have concluded that nearly all constitutional rights are protected by property rules, regardless of whether a rightholder actually is protected by an injunction, or instead merely has a substantial likelihood of obtaining one if she goes to court.

This Article challenges this …

Remedial Discretion In Constitutional Adjudication, John M. Greabe

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Struggle Over Executive Appointments, John C. Roberts

Utah Law Review

This Article argues that the long-term struggle between the President and the Senate over executive appointments has now reached a crisis and that we may be approaching a point where the President’s crucial duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed is significantly impaired. During the Obama administration, an unprecedented number of judgeships and executive branch positions remain unfilled, threatening the smooth functioning of government at an especially demanding time.

Managing Political Polarization In Congress: A Case Study On The Use Of The Hastert Rule, Holly Fechner

Utah Law Review

This Article discusses the ideological polarization of Congress and of the Republican Party in particular. The rise of the Tea Party widened the ideological spectrum of members of the Republican caucus in Congress, especially in the House. To retain his leadership position and balance the competing factions in his caucus, Speaker Boehner routinely used a political and procedural tool known as the Hastert Rule.9 The Hastert Rule provides that the Speaker of the House will not schedule a bill for a floor vote unless a “majority of the majority” favors the legislation.

Holding The President Accountable To Constitutional Limits, Louis Fisher

Utah Law Review

As with Congress and the judiciary, presidents have access to powers expressly stated in the Constitution and those necessarily implied in those grants. In highly limited circumstances, presidents may also exercise a “prerogative” (i.e., unilateral action), but that authority is frequently misunderstood and subject to abuse. Unlike those in the other branches, presidents lay claim to a host of powers far beyond enumerated and implied powers. In seizing steel mills in 1952 to prosecute the war in Korea, President Harry Truman acted on what he called an “inherent” power that was not subject to judicial or legislative checks. Presidents Richard …

Executive Power In The Obama Administration And The Decision To Seek Congressional Authorization For A Military Attack Against Syria: Implications For Theories Of Unilateral Action, Kenneth R. Mayer

Utah Law Review

The primary axiom of the unilateral-powers literature is that the institutional setting and political incentives that confront presidents push them to seek maximum discretion over policy. The straightforward implication is that presidents will seek control (Terry Moe calls it autonomy)—always contentious given the competitive political authority at the heart of separation of powers, but necessary to them given their interests and position in the political system. Empirically, presidents are expected to (and do) act unilaterally, moving first to put their stamp on policy and process, shape institutional structures, and alter the status quo to shift government outputs toward their preferred …

Unequal Inequalities? Poverty, Sexual Orientation, And The Dynamics Of Constitutional Law, Jane S. Schacter

Utah Law Review

As we think about the future role the judicial branch will play in our governance, we might consider one important function of the courts: addressing claims of constitutional inequality. In this Article, I explore this question by juxtaposing two claims of inequality that have been pressed by advocates—one concerning sexual orientation, the other concerning poverty. These two contexts are undoubtedly different in ways both numerous and significant. The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights movement is today, while the constitutional movement for the rights of the poor was yesterday.1 The LGBT movement has won major Supreme Court victories in …

Reinvigorating The Judiciary’S Role In Resolving Interbranch Disputes, Michael Teter

Utah Law Review

The Framers established a federal government of three coequal, coordinate branches—each with its own constitutional responsibilities and each charged with checking the other two branches. Indeed, separated functions and balance of power are the two underlying elements of our bedrock constitutional principle of separation of powers. The current style of governance in the Unites States poses a unique and serious threat to that basic principle. Congressional dysfunction prevents the legislative branch from legislating, pushes the executive branch toward assuming greater lawmaking authority, and undermines the ability of both the judiciary and executive branch to fulfill their own constitutional obligations.

Unfunded Federal Mandates And State Judiciaries: A Question Of Sovereignty, Christine M. Durham, Brian L. Hazen

Utah Law Review

State courts have a well-recognized obligation to provide LEP individuals with meaningful access. In accordance with federal law, state courts have long been taking steps to increase that access, though perhaps not with time frames as swift as DOJ (or even the courts themselves) would prefer. But determining the manner in which state courts allocate their resources to provide interpreters should be within the discretion of the states to decide, provided, of course, that the courts provide meaningful access to LEP individuals. Additionally, state courts must make LEP funding decisions in a holistic context that requires courts to allocate scarce …

Finding The Lost Involuntary Public Figure, Jeffrey Omar Usman

Utah Law Review

This Article follows Aristotle’s guidance that “[i]f you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development.” That is precisely how the discussion in this Article begins in Part I, through observation of the beginning and development of the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on the constitutional limitations imposed upon defamation actions under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Part II of the Article then briefly sets forth the constitutional framework that the Supreme Court imposed in 1974 on defamation actions in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. The Article then addresses in Part III how the pressures of the First …

Public Water, Private Rights: All Are Not Equally Protected When The State Allows Some To Divert Small Quantities Of Ground Water Outside The Permitting System, Carolyn A. Sime

Montana Law Review

Public Water, Private Rights: All Are Not Equally Protected When The State Allows Some To Divert Small Quantities Of Ground Water Outside The Permitting System

Democracy-Assisting Judicial Review And The Challenge Of Partisan Polarization, Terri Peretti

Utah Law Review

This Article recommends abandoning the democracy-assisting idea and instead exploring ways to prevent the Court from being enlisted in extreme and unrepresentative causes. Reform ideas should focus on increasing and regularizing turnover on the Court and encouraging the selection of more representative Justices, an outcome made more likely by increasing the representativeness of the elected officials who choose the Justices. Absent a crisis, of course, it is highly unlikely that any such reforms will be adopted. Nonetheless, it is a worthwhile exercise to think about how to enhance representational and consensus-building processes in the presence of growing partisan polarization. And …

The Commerce Power And Congressional Mandates, Dan T. Coenen

Scholarly Works

In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, a five-Justice majority concluded that the commerce power did not support enactment of the so-called “individual mandate,” which imposes a penalty on many persons who fail to buy health insurance. That ruling is sure to spark challenges to other federal laws on the theory that they likewise mandate individuals or entities to take certain actions. Federal laws founded on the commerce power, for example, require mine operators to provide workers with safety helmets and (at least as a practical matter) require mine workers to wear them. Some analysts will say that laws …

Constitutional Theories: A Taxonomy And (Implicit) Critique, Larry Alexander

San Diego Law Review

I am honored to have been invited to present this Madison Lecture, and I want to thank my hosts, Robby George and Brad Wilson, for their hospitality and for the excellence achieved by the Madison Program under their stewardship. My charge was to present something on constitutional theory. Now, as you shall see, I do work in one corner of constitutional theory, and of course I believe it is the right corner to work in and that all constitutional theorists should be working in my corner. The baleful truth, however, is that most constitutional theorists reject that claim, despite several …

Public Law At The Cathedral: Enjoining The Government, Michael T. Morley

Cardozo Law Review

Conventional wisdom provides that injunctive relief in public law cases is generally unnecessary, because a declaratory judgment and the threat of damages are enough to induce the government to comply with a court's ruling (except, perhaps, in the institutional reform context). Consistent with this prevailing understanding, most scholars to apply Calabresi and Melamed's Cathedral framework to public law have concluded that nearly all constitutional rights are protected by property rules, regardless of whether a rightholder actually is protected by an injunction, or instead merely has a substantial likelihood of obtaining one if she goes to court.

This Article challenges this …

July 30, 2014: The Best Written Sports Illustrated Issue Ever, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Best Written Sports Illustrated Issue Ever“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

July 28, 2014: Americans Are Israelis, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

July 26, 2014: The Return Of Teleology, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

July 19, 2014: The Problem With Capitalism, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

July 19, 2014: Break Until Friday, 7/25, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Break Until Friday, 7/25“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.