Constitutional Law Commons^™

Democratic Inclusion, Cognitive Development, And The Age Of Electoral Majority, Vivian E. Hamilton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Follow The Money! Article I And Article Vi Constitutional Barriers To Renewable Energy In The U.S. Future, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

When one "follows the money," the current Administration‘s economic stimulus funding injected unprecedented billions of dollars into new energy-related capital investments. In doing so, it endeavors to fundamentally re-sculpt the legal fabric and infrastructure of the U.S. economy in a once-in-a-generation change of watershed proportion. However, this re-sculpting is hitting fundamental constitutional barriers under Articles I and VI.

There is a jurisdictional barrier: Renewable energy investments, promoted primarily at the state level, confront real challenges pursuant to the Constitution‘s Supremacy Clause (Article VI) and Commerce Clause (Article I). Among the most litigated constitutional issues before the U.S. Supreme Court, these …

First Amendment Protection For Union Appeals To Consumers, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

This article explains why decisions of the National Labor Relations Board under President Obama holding non-picketing secondary appeals to consumers not to be illegal under the National Labor Relations Act were necessary under a 1988 decision of the Supreme Court, Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. v. Florida Gulf Coast Building & Construction Trades Council. The article also explains why both the Supreme Court decision and the Board’s recent decisions were compelled by the first amendment and could not be based on the language of § 8(b)(4)(ii)(B) of the National Labor Relations Act as interpreted by the Court in other cases. The …

In Medias Res, Larry Yackle

Faculty Scholarship

It’s common in academic circles to distinguish between positive arguments (which describe things as they are) and normative arguments (which prescribe the way things ought to be). The distinction dissolves as soon as accounts of how the world works spill over into justifications for the status quo. That happens a lot, especially in discussions of theory. It happens again in David Strauss’ wonderful monograph.1 Strauss offers a succinct exposition of the constitutional system we actually observe, coupled with a powerful explanation of how and why the scheme functions as it does and genuine reassurance that, on the whole, we can …

Living Originalism And Living Constitutionalism As Moral Readings Of The American Constitution, James E. Fleming

Faculty Scholarship

With this event – A Symposium on Jack Balkin’s Living Originalism and David Strauss’s The Living Constitution – we launch a Boston University School of Law series of symposia on significant recent books in law. The distinctive format is to pick two significant books that join issue on an important topic, to invite the author of each book to write an essay on the other book, and to invite several Boston University School of Law faculty to write an essay on one or both books.

What are the justifications for pairing Balkin’s Living Originalism1 and Strauss’s The Living Constitution2 in …

Law's Public/Private Structure, Christian Turner

Scholarly Works

Often derided for its incoherence or uselessness, the public/private distinction is rarely studied explicitly outside the state action doctrine in Constitutional Law. To ignore this distinction, however, is to miss the most fundamental sorting criterion in our law. Distinguishing whether public or private entities control (a) law creation and definition and (b) prosecution leads to a simple yet powerful taxonomy of legal systems. The taxonomy characterizes legal systems in terms of control over decisionmaking by our most basic institutional forms: the public and private. Thus, the proper categorization of laws within the system, for example whether a policy should be …

Revisiting "Special Needs" Theory Via Airport Searches, Alexander A. Reinert

Articles

Controversy has raged since the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) introduced Advanced Imaging Technology, capable of producing detailed images of travelers' bodies, and "enhanced" pat frisks as part of everyday airport travel. In the face of challenges in the courts and in public discourse, the TSA has justified the heightened security measures as a necessary means to prevent terrorist attacks. The purpose of this Essay is to situate the Fourth Amendment implications of the new regime within a broader historical context. Most germane, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) introduced sweeping new screening of air travelers in the 1960s and 1970s …

Redress: Rights And Other Remedies, A Comment On David Engel's Article On Rights Consciousness, Arzoo Osanloo

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In responding to David Engel's Article, this Comment analyzes how Engel situates contemporary perspectives on rights drawing from his research in Thailand. Engel shows how the discourse of rights carries with it meanings that have multiple and changing connotations and on the ground effects. Following on Engel's questions about how consciousness of rights spreads and takes shape in local contexts, this Comment calls for expanding the substantive and methodological bases for understanding the changing effects of rights discourses. This Comment suggests that a study of the broader social and political implications, including the costs, of rights discourses (internationally, nationally, and …

Against Wishful Scholarship: The Importance Of Engel, Duncan Mccargo

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

David Engel's Article on global consciousness' crystallizes a set of arguments he recently made in a number of publications, most notably in his coauthored book Tort, Custom, and Karma.2 To me, the main point of his argument is by no means limited to questions of law or globalism. Rather, he argues against the dominant mode of writing among scholars across a wide range of social science and related disciplines-a mode of writing that might best be termed "wishful scholarship." In wishful scholarship, the starting point of the author is the world as she or he wishes to see it, or …

Vertical And Horizontal Perspectives On Rights Consciousness, David M. Engel

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

It has become commonplace to assert that rights consciousness is expanding globally and that individuals worldwide are demonstrating an increasing awareness of and insistence upon their legal entitlements. To marshal empirical support for such claims is, however, exceedingly complex. One important line of socio-legal research on rights consciousness adopts what might be called a "vertical" perspective, tracing the flow of legal forms and practices from prestigious and authoritative centers of cultural production to local settings, where they may be adopted, resisted, or transformed. Vertical perspectives on global rights consciousness have broadened and enriched the field of law and society by …

June 28, 2012: Materialism, The Supernatural And The More, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

June 25, 2012: Having It Both Ways On The Iranian Fatwa, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Having It Both Ways on the Iranian Fatwa“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Racial Disparities In Sentencing In The U.S. And Georgia, Kamal Rattray, Nicole Lee

Georgia Journal of Public Policy

Incarceration represents the ultimate use of coercive power, and in the state of Georgia, that power is being disproportionately levied upon people of color, particularly African Americans.1 According to 2011 statistics from the Georgia Department of Corrections, the total prison population statewide was approximately 53,341 inmates. The majority of that number were Blacks (33,069 inmates), followed by Whites (17,752 inmates), Hispanics (2,306 inmates) and other ethnic groups.

June 21, 2012: The Misuse Of Religious Exemptions, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

June 17, 2012: My First Fatherless Father’S Day, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “My First Fatherless Father’s Day“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

June 14, 2012: Do We Have Any Player As Good As Jesus?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Do We Have Any Player as Good as Jesus?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Four Shots At The Commerce Clause: The Firearms Freedom Act And The Unarticulated Products Category Of The Commerce Power, Joseph Luppino-Esposito

Seton Hall Circuit Review

No abstract provided.

June 10, 2012: Cut Off From Blame And Punishment, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Cut Off from Blame and Punishment“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

June 8, 2012: How Do The Draft Cases Aid In Resolution Of The Culture Wars?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “How Do the Draft Cases Aid in Resolution of the Culture Wars?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Two Cheers For The Constitution Of The United States: A Response To Professor Lee J. Strang, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

This article is an invited response to Professor Lee Strang’s article Originalism and the Aristotelian Tradition: Virtue’s Home in Originalism, 80 Fordham L. Rev. 1997 (2012). Strang defends original public meaning originalism from a virtue theoretic perspective that he traces to the “central Western tradition” and ultimately to Aristotle. I reply that those committed to that tradition do better (1) to reject original pubic meaning originalism, (2) to embrace some version of original intent originalism, and (3) to defend the original intent meaning of the U.S. Constitution only with important reservations and on certain conditions. The original sin of …