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Constitutional Law

Constitutional Law Prof Blog

News, analysis, and commentary on constitutional law issues in the courts, the administration, Congress, and the states; and commentary and analysis on constitutional law scholarship.
By Steven D. Schwinn, Ruthann Robson, Nareissa L. Smith

Post Frequency: 3.1/day

Last Entry: November 04, 2020 at 10:04:25

Judge Kimba Wood on gender equality

Posted on November 21, 2010
Federal District Judge Kimba Wood of the Southern District of New York responded to an attorney's jaunty request for a possible day off from trial - - - should his grandchild be born a boy - - - with an...

State Legislators' Amicus Supports Federal Health Care Reform

Posted on November 20, 2010
State legislators from 27 states today filed an amicus brief supporting the federal government in the State of Florida's challenge to federal health care reform now in the Northern District of Florida. Some of the states represented have filed their....

White House Weighs in on Access to Justice

Posted on November 19, 2010
Vice President Joe Biden today spoke at a Middle Class Task Force event co-hosted by the Department of Justice's Access to Justice Initiative. He outlined three steps that the administration is taking to promote access: The Department of Labor is...

CLS v. Martinez on Remand: No First Amendment Claim

Posted on November 18, 2010
The Ninth Circuit has refused to remand Christian Legal Society (CLS) v. Martinez - - - now Christian Legal Society v. Wu - - - to the district court to consider the claim that UC Hastings College of Law "selectively...

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First Circuit Upholds Mandatory Voluntary Pledge in Classrooms

Posted on November 16, 2010
A three-judge panel of the First Circuit on Friday upheld a New Hampshire law requiring school districts to authorize a period of time during the school day for recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance--including the words "under God." Under the...

West Virginia "Acting Governor": Violation of State Constitution?

Posted on November 16, 2010
Joe Manchin, the former governor, was sworn in as the junior United States Senator from West Virginia yesterday. West Virginia is one of less than ten states that does not have an official lieutenant governor to assume the governorship. Instead,...

Government Likely to Detain KSM Indefinitely

Posted on November 15, 2010
The Washington Post reported this weekend that the Obama administration is unlikely to push for federal trial for Khalid Sheik Mohammed (because it would anger lawmakers in Congress and in New York) and unlikely to push for trial in a...

Second Circuit on First Amendment Rights of Clerk of County Court

Posted on November 15, 2010
In an opinion issued this morning, the Second Circuit has allowed Bobette Morin's lawsuit against judges and court personnel in Ononganda County, New York to go forward. In Morin v. Tormey, Morin, the Chief Clerk of Ononganda County Family Court...

DADT: The Supreme Court and the Status Quo

Posted on November 13, 2010
As expected, in a brief order on Friday the United States Supreme Court has refused to vacate the Ninth's Circuit's Stay of District Judge Virginia Phillips' injunction against enforcement of the military's "don't ask don't tell" (DADT) policy regarding "homosexuality"...

Senator Rockefeller, Health Care, and the West Virginia Law Review

Posted on November 12, 2010
The just-published issue of West Virginia Law Review is a Symposium on "Health Care in America" and is one of the first law review issues to substantively address the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The journal includes discussion of...

D.C. Circuit Clarifies "Part Of" Test for Guantanamo Detention

Posted on November 12, 2010
The D.C. Circuit last week remanded a Guantanamo petitioner's habeas corpus case to the district court for a determination whether the petitioner was "part of" al Qaeda under the Circuit's refined standard for detention. The case, Salahi v. Obama, tests...

Alito and Ethics

Posted on November 11, 2010
Is it legal for a Justice of the United States Supreme Court to attend political fundraisers? That's the query posed by Lee Fang, a reporter at Think Progress, to Justice Samuel Alito at the American Spectator fundraiser, which Alito reportedly...

Cigarette Labeling and the First Amendment

Posted on November 11, 2010
The FDA this week unveiled its new proposed cigarette warning labels under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, signed on June 22, 2009. Here are a some sample approved warning labels, from the FDA web-site: As you might...

Federal Judge Issues TRO in Oklahoma's Anti-Sharia Case

Posted on November 10, 2010
Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange of the Western District of Oklahoma yesterday issued her Temporary Restraining Order, enjoining the State from certifying the election results for State Question 755, the state ballot question that would amend the Oklahoma Constitution to ban state...

Flores-Villar Oral Argument Analysis: Father's Rights or Citizenship Rights? And What Remedy?

Posted on November 10, 2010
The United States Supreme Court heard oral argument today in Flores Villar v. United States. As we discussed in our previous analysis when certorari was granted, the statute at issue in Flores-Villar is the requirement that a citizen father must...

How do you spell Bush v. Gore?: Miller sues over ballot interpretations of Murkowski's name in Alaska Senate race

Posted on November 10, 2010
In a Complaint filed late yesterday in the Alaska District Court, United States Senate Candidate Joe Miller is seeking to exclude write-in ballots for incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski unless her name is spelled correctly. As background, there is good reporting...

Jim Morrison's Possibility of Pardon

Posted on November 09, 2010
The Hill is reporting that Florida Governor Charlie Crist is considering a posthumous pardon of Jim Morrison. Morrison, the famous lead singer of The Doors (and Florida native), was convicted in Miami in 1970 of indecent exposure and profanity, although...

Two (more) challenges to DOMA

Posted on November 09, 2010
As the two decisions by Judge Joseph Tauro declaring section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) are on appeal and being defended by the Obama DOJ, two more challenges were filed today. The complaint in Pedersen v. Office...

Federal Court Blocks Oklahoma's Anti-Sharia Con Amendment

Posted on November 08, 2010
Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange of the Western District of Oklahoma today issued a temporary restraining order preventing the State of Oklahoma from implementing its new constitutional amendment that would ban the use of Sharia law in Oklahoma courts. The court released...

Michigan Assistant AG Terminated: First Amendment Issue?

Posted on November 08, 2010
Recall the Michigan Assistant AG who claimed he was engaging in political speech in a campaign against the gay university student body president? The state AG, Mike Cox, terminated him today. According to reporter David Jesse at annarbor.com: Cox said...

Nebraska Supreme Court Refuses Certified Question from Federal Court in Fremont Immigration Ordinance Challenge

Posted on November 07, 2010
In a brief opinion, the Nebraska Supreme Court (pictured below) denied a certification request from the federal district court in the controversial Fremont immigration ordinance challenge. The Fremont Ordinance, passed by ballot initiative in June, provides that all persons renting...

Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention

Posted on November 07, 2010
The theme of the 2010 National Lawyers Convention of the Federalist Society is "Controlling Government: The Framers, the Tea Parties and the Constitution." The event is November 18- 20 in Washington, D.C. Speakers include Senator from Kentucky Mitch McConnell, John...

Greenhouse on Sotomayor and Dissents from Certiorari

Posted on November 05, 2010
Linda Greenhouse has a worth-reading column that begins by referencing the revelation of ConLawProf Larry Tribe's initial dismissal of Sotomayor in a letter to Obama but soon rises to an insightful analysis of Sotomayor's career as a Justice so far.....

Group Sues to Stop Oklahoma's Anti-Sharia Constitutional Amendment

Posted on November 05, 2010
Muneer Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, filed for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction seeking to stop the State of Oklahoma from certifying state ballot question 755 and implementing the new anti-Sharia constitutional amendment...

Discussion of Brennan Biography Event

Posted on November 05, 2010

How Democratic is the Constitution?

Posted on November 04, 2010
That's the question that participants will address at Loyola's (Chicago) Constitutional Law Colloquium this Friday and Saturday, November 5 and 6. This first annual Loyola conference brings together constitutional law scholars at all stages of their professional development to discuss...

Tennessee Felony Disenfranchisement Statute Requiring Child Support Payments Upheld

Posted on November 04, 2010
Who voted this week? Certainly not persons convicted of felonies who owe child support in Tennessee. In a split-panel opinion issued by the Sixth Circuit in Johnson v. Bredesen, the court upheld Tennessee's felony disenfranchisement law. The statute disenfranchises persons...

Court to Hear Right to Counsel Case

Posted on November 01, 2010
The Supreme Court today granted cert. in Turner v. Price, a case from the South Carolina Supreme Court rejecting petitioner's claim that he had a constitutional right to counsel in a civil contempt proceeding. Petitioner Michael Turner appeared in South...

Federalism, Marriage, Perry and DOMA: Sanders on States Amicus Brief

Posted on October 31, 2010
Steve Sanders has posted an interesting commentary on the amicus brief filed by thirteen states in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the Proposition 8 case now in the Ninth Circuit, which we last discussed here. Sanders points to the inconsistency in the...

Arizona SB1070, Legislative Process, and Constitutional Consequences

Posted on October 31, 2010
As so-called "copycat" legislation of Arizona's SB 1070 is being contemplated by 25 other states, some provocative reporting from NPR discusses the genesis of such laws. In part one of the report, NPR states that it "spent the past several...

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