Constitutional Law Commons^™

Fueling Controversy, Randy Beck

Scholarly Works

In a recent Yale Law Journal article, Linda Greenhouse and Reva Siegel question the received wisdom that the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade generated a political backlash, inflaming conflict over abortion and damaging the political process. The evidence they highlight shows that political conflict over abortion predated the Roe opinion, spurred by the Catholic Church and by Republican Party strategists seeking to foster party realignment. This enriched picture of the political and social landscape at the time of the decision undermines any simplistic suggestion that Roe served as “the sole cause of backlash” or “single-handedly caused societal polarization …

The Architecture Of First Amendment Free Speech, Edward J. Eberle

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Free Press Crisis Of 1800: Thomas Cooper's Trial For Seditious Libel, Eric Easton

All Faculty Scholarship

This article was an invited book review of a book of the same title by Peter Charles Hoffer. Hoffer, Distinguished Research Professor of History at the University of Georgia, has published this accessible case history as part of the University Press of Kansas’s Landmark Law Cases & American Society series, which he co-edits.

The book discusses one of the cases arising as a result of the Alien & Sedition Act under the presidency of John Adams, mostly targeting Republicans who editorialized against the Adams administration.

Racial Redistricting In A Post-Racial World, Gilda R. Daniels

All Faculty Scholarship

The 2011 redistricting will provide some interesting challenges for minority voting rights. How can we preserve minority electoral opportunities and gains in the wake of Bartlett v. Strickland and Georgia v. Ashcroft? What is the impact on future voting rights litigation and are coalition district claims viable as an opportunity to continue the electoral gains made since the passage of the Voting Rights Act? Are majority-minority districts safe from legislative backsliding? The Supreme Court's construed admonitions against race-conscious redistricting in recent cases may become cautionary tales. This Article discusses the central role the Voting Rights Act should play in preserving …

Legitimate Absenteeism: The Unconstitutionality Of The Caucus Attendance Requirement, Heather R. Abraham

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Decentralization: Power, Extraconstitutional Influence, And Subnational Symmetry In The United States And Spain, James A. Gardner, Antoni Abat I Ninet

Journal Articles

In the Madisonian tradition of constitutional design, the foundation of a sustainable federalism is thought to be a scientifically precise balancing of national and subnational power. Experience shows, however, that national and subnational actors in highly diverse systems are capable of developing a rich array of extraconstitutional methods of mutual influence, so that the formal, constitutionalized balance of power rarely settles the question of the actual balance of power between levels of government. A more important factor in ensuring the long-term sustainability of a meaningfully federal system is the degree of symmetry across subnational units in their relation to the …

Congressional Authority To Interpret The Thirteenth Amendment: A Response To Professor Tsesis, Jennifer Mason Mcaward

Journal Articles

This essay explores the proper scope of Congress’s power to enforce the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition on slavery and involuntary servitude. It reviews the historical context surrounding the drafting of the Thirteenth Amendment enforcement power, and it points to structural constitutional considerations relevant to the understanding of that power. It concludes by suggesting some related topics that deserve further exploration.

Where Are The Grounds For The Legality Of Abortion? A 13th Amendment Argument, Laura Sjoberg

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article critiques the legal framework supporting abortion rights, arguing that privacy-based jurisprudence, as established in *Roe v. Wade*, is inadequate due to its roots in a gendered public/private divide that perpetuates inequality. It proposes a new constitutional basis for abortion rights under the Thirteenth Amendment, framing forced pregnancy as a form of involuntary servitude and emphasizing gender subordination rather than privacy or equality.

The Constitutionality Of And Need For Retroactive Civil Legislation Relating To Child Sexual Abuse, Jenna Miller

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note advocates for the constitutionality and necessity of retroactive child sexual abuse laws, arguing that they provide victims with a pathway to justice despite statutes of limitations. It supports this stance with Supreme Court rulings and examples of successful implementations in states like California and Delaware, emphasizing the balance between victims' rights and defendants' rights.

Guarding Their Sanctuary On The Offense: Criminal Contempt Actions By Domestic Violence Victims In Private Capacity, Mili Patel

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Gender-Classified Imports: Equal Protection Violations In The Harmonized Tariff Schedule Of The United States, Jason Lewis

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that gender-based classifications in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) likely violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It critiques the Federal Circuit's application of a lower level of scrutiny in Totes-Isotoner Corp. v. United States and advocates for courts to apply intermediate scrutiny, as established by Craig v. Boren, to such classifications. The analysis also examines the role of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in trade negotiations and asserts that international agreements cannot override constitutional protections.

The Origins Of The Privileges Or Immunities Clause, Part Ii: John Bingham And The Second Draft Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

Historical accounts of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment generally assume that John Bingham based the text on Article IV of the original Constitution and that Bingham, like other Reconstruction Republicans, viewed Justice Washington’s opinion in Corfield v. Coryell as the definitive interpretation of Article IV. According to this view, Justice Miller in the Slaughterhouse Cases failed to follow both framers’ intent and obvious textual meaning when he sharply distinguished Section One’s privileges or immunities from Article IV’s privileges and immunities.

This article, the second in an extended investigation of the origins of the …

Reassessing The Avoidance Canon In Erie Cases, Bernadette Bollas Genetin

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Tracy Thomas

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

No abstract provided.

Constitutionality Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act Under The Commerce Clause And The Necessary And Proper Clause, Wilson Huhn

Akron Law Faculty Publications

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a comprehensive federal statute that attempts to extend health insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans and to expand health insurance coverage by eliminating exclusions for preexisting conditions, increase medical loss ratios, abolish annual and lifetime limits, and other reforms. A necessary provision of this law (the individual mandate) requires most individuals to maintain health insurance coverage. The individual mandate has been challenged in a number of lawsuits on the ground that Congress lacks the power under the Constitution to require individuals to purchase health insurance. The power of Congress to …

Constantly Approximating Popular Sovereignty: Seven Fundamental Principles Of Constitutional Law, Wilson Huhn

Akron Law Faculty Publications

The concept of “popular sovereignty” is not a simple, singular, unified concept; instead, as it has developed in the United States, popular sovereignty embraces the following seven fundamental principles:

1. The Rule of Law. The people are sovereign and their will is expressed through law.

2. Limited Government. The people are sovereign, not the government. By adopting the Constitution the people created the government, imposed limits upon its power, and divided that power among different levels and branches.

3. Inalienable Rights. Every individual person is sovereign in the sense that he or she retains certain inalienable rights, which the government …

Electing Our Judges And Judicial Independence: The Supreme Court's "Triple Whammy", Martin Belsky

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In this article, Martin Belsky makes the case for judicial selection based on merit, as opposed to popular elections. Belsky cites Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Company and the recent defeat of three Iowa supreme court justices because of their opinion in a controversial gay marriage case for the proposition that judicial elections can, and do, yield unjust results. Belsky asserts the need for judicial independence, but concludes that this goal is not achievable through elections because of the "triple whammy" of constitutional limitations: (1) the First Amendment protection of the right of judges and judicial candidates to give specific, …

From Substance To Shadows: An Essay On Salazar V. Buono And Establishment Clause Remedies, David B. Owens

Articles

Most disputes about the Establishment Clause center on its substantive meaning; whether, for example, a state subsidy promotes religion, the phrase “In God We Trust” can appear on currency, or a display of the Ten Commandments is unconstitutional. Often overlooked and lurking behind these substantive disputes is a question about what remedies are available when an Establishment Clause violation is found. Typically, an injunction prohibiting the subsidy, practice, or display is the choice. In Salazar v. Buono, however, the Supreme Court was confronted with an unusual case for two reasons. First, the doctrine of res judicata formally barred the …

Mosaic Theory And The Fourth Amendment: How Jones Can Save Privacy In The Fact Of Evolving Technology, Madelaine Virginia Ford

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Sovereignty, Rebalanced: The Tea Party And Constitutional Amendments, Elizabeth Price Foley

Faculty Publications

Arguably since the Marshall Court and undoubtedly since the New Deal, the U.S. Constitution has been subverted to the point where its original meaning has been substantially lost inside a tangled knot of Supreme Court case law. Like termites eating away at the constitutional architecture, Supreme Court interpretations of provisions such as the Commerce Clause, taxing and spending power, Privileges or Immunities Clause, Ninth Amendment, Tenth Amendment, and Eleventh Amendment have so rotted them that they no longer serve the critical functions originally envisioned.