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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

O'Donnell, Jefferson on Separation of Church and State

Posted on October 28, 2010
Republican Senate Candidate Christine O'Donnell's 2008 primary campaign manager Jonathon Moseley this week offered a $1,000.00 reward to anyone who could find the phrase "separation of church and state" in the Constitution. (Thanks to Carrie Beth Clark for the tip...

Sixth Circuit Holds Teacher Has No First Amendment Right in Assignments

Posted on October 27, 2010
Shelley Evans-Marshall taught English and Creative Writing in high school, to ninth, eleventh and twelfth graders. She assigned Herman Hesse's Siddhartha. She assigned Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and to explore that book?s theme of government censorship, she developed an assignment...

Mississippi Court Allows Personhood Initiative To Appear on Ballot

Posted on October 27, 2010
Mississippi Circuit Court Judge Malcolm Harrison ruled yesterday that a ballot initiative to define "person" did not violate a state constitutional provision that prohibits the use of initiatives to modify the state Bill of Rights. (Clarionledger.com reports here...

Court Conclusions of Unconstitutionality and Government Decisions to Appeal

Posted on October 27, 2010
The Obama DOJ's footnote one in the Emergency Motion appealing the district judge's injunction of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy states the DOJ has a "longstanding practice of defending the constitutionality of federal statutes." But is that really...

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Arizona Voter Identification Law Unconstitutional as Preempted by National Voter Registration Act

Posted on October 26, 2010
A Ninth Circuit panel opinion today, with retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor sitting by designation, has declared Arizona Proposition 200 regarding citizenship identification for voting, invalid as preempted. Judge Sandra Ikuta begins her opinion for the majority of the panel...

Kansas Court Extends Right to Counsel to Habeas Petition

Posted on October 25, 2010
The Kansas Court of Appeals (the state's intermediate appellate court) ruled last week in Merryfield v. Kansas that a person involuntarily confined in the Kansas Sexual Predator Treatment Program has a right to counsel under due process and equal protection...

Courtroom Spectator Speech: Red Clipboards and Judicial Ethics

Posted on October 25, 2010
A Minnesota judge's reaction to a court monitoring project, WATCH, has been attracting attention from the likes of the ABA Journal and WSJ Law Blog, as well as the local City Pages. The underlying incident involves members of WATCH appearing...

Ninth Circuit Grants Stay in Don't Ask Don't Tell

Posted on October 21, 2010
The Ninth Circuit has granted the DOJ Motion and issued an Order staying the district court's injunction of don't ask don't tell, which the judge had declared unconstitutional: This court has received appellant?s emergency motion to stay the district court?s...

Fed Independence, Fed Capture

Posted on October 21, 2010
Would the Federal Reserve do better to drop its independence and become (once again) more accountable to elected officials? Timothy Canova takes on this question in the current issue of The American Prospect. He concludes that a period of Fed...

Judge Phillips Denies Motion to Stay Order on Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Posted on October 20, 2010
In the latest round of Log Cabin Republicans v. United States, in which Federal District Judge has held the military's policy regarding "homosexuality" in the military unconstitutional, Judge Phillips has issued an Order denying the Government's Request to Stay...

Lawyering in the Age of Terror: Panel Discussion

Posted on October 20, 2010
In New York City, October 27, 2010: RR

Obama DOJ Appeals Denial of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" Stay to Ninth Circuit

Posted on October 20, 2010
Judge Phillips denial of the DOJ's motion to stay her injunction of the military's "don't ask don't tell" policy in Log Cabin Republicans v. US is being appealed by the DOJ in an Emergency Motion (with memo) to the Ninth...

Chemerinsky: A Conservative Assault on the Constitution

Posted on October 19, 2010
Erwin Chemerinsky released his new book, The Conservative Assault on the Constitution, late last month. It's a highly accessible, often first-hand account (through his own cases, his own advocacy) of how a rightward shift in the composition of the federal...

Seventh Circuit Upholds Moment of Silence in Schools

Posted on October 18, 2010
A three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit on Friday upheld an Illinois law requiring a moment of silence at the beginning of each school day. The case, Sherman v. Koch, involved this provision: Period of Silence. Sec. 1. In each...

The Persons Case: A Canadian Anniversary

Posted on October 18, 2010
Are women persons? At one time, the Supreme Court of Canada answered this question in the negative, but the Privy Council disagreed, thus allowing women to be considered "qualified persons" to run for elective office. It's the anniversary - -...

Presidential Power and Torture/Surveillance: New Book

Posted on October 17, 2010
Charles Fried, former Solictor General and ConLawProf at Harvard Law and his son, Gregory Fried, philosophy department, Suffolk University, have co-authored Because it is Wrong: Torture, Privacy and Presidential Power in the Age of Terror. The book promises both a...

Florida Health Care Decision: Democracy Reinforcing or Judicial Overreaching?

Posted on October 16, 2010
One of the several eye-catching features of this week's decision on health care reform out of the Northern District of Florida is this: The court's homage to publicity as a core value in our representative democracy. The remarkable statement comes...

Florida District Judge Rules on Motion to Dismiss Health Care Reform Challenge

Posted on October 14, 2010
In a 65 page opinion issued today, Senior United States District Judge Roger Vinson of the Northern District of Florida has granted in part and denied in part the morion to dismiss the complaint. The Complaint alleges that the Health...

Loyola U-Chicago Constitutional Law Conference

Posted on October 14, 2010
More information and registration here. RR

The Case for Judicial Minimalism in Pakistan

Posted on October 14, 2010
The Supreme Court and the High Court of Pakistan are badly in need of a lesson in judicial minimalism, according to Saroop Ijaz, advocate before the Lahore High Court in Pakistan, in a column this week in the Jurist. Based...

Florida will NOT appeal unconstitutionality of "homosexual adoption" ban

Posted on October 13, 2010
The Secretary of the Florida's Department of Families and Children has reportedly stated that it will not appeal the Florida appellate court's ruling declaring the state law banning "homosexuals" from adopting. While the intermediate appellate court opinion noted that its...

Obama DOJ Appeals Decision that DOMA Section 3 is Unconstitutional

Posted on October 12, 2010
Recall the two decisions of United States District Judge Joseph Tauro holding section 3 of the Defense of Mariage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional: Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. HHS and Gill v. Office of Personnel Management. The Obama Department of Justice has...

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Military Policy Enjoined by Federal Judge

Posted on October 12, 2010
In a brief order today, federal district judge Virginia Phillips, Central District of California, has permanently enjoined the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The judge had previously ruled that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regulating homosexuality is...

Plaintiff Responds in Targeted Killing Case

Posted on October 11, 2010
The ACLU and Center for Constitutional Rights responded Friday to the government's motion to dismiss in Al-Aulaqi v. Obama. The case challenges the President's authority to order the targeting killing of Nasser Al-Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen allegedly supporting al Qaeda...

Audio of Supreme Court Arguments

Posted on October 10, 2010
The audio of Supreme Court arguments from the term's first week is available from the Court's website. And from our colleagues at Oyez, Pocket Justice, the "top 100" Supreme Court cases available as an app. RR

Federal Court Upholds Individual Health Insurance Mandate

Posted on October 07, 2010
Judge George Caram Steeh (E.D. Mich.) today denied the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction and rejected their claim for declaratory relief in a case challenging the federal government's authority to enact the individual health insurance mandate as part of...

Only the Bible?: Prison Book Policy Challenged

Posted on October 06, 2010
The Berkeley County Detention Center in South Carolina has an exceedingly limited book and magazine policy, according to a complaint which quotes detention center personnel as writing: Our inmates are only allowed to receive soft back bibles in the mail...

More on Snyder v. Phelps

Posted on October 06, 2010
SCOTUSBlog has a round-up of the comments on the oral argument, as well as events after the oral argument. One of our readers sent in this photo which she took and gave us permission to use, reminding us of the...

Snyder v. Phelps, the military funeral protest case: Oral Argument Analysis

Posted on October 06, 2010
The Court heard oral arguments (transcript here) in Snyder v. Phelps this morning, an appeal involving the First Amendment right to protest juxtaposed against a tort judgment for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Background on the case below; update above...

Snyder v. Phelps, the military funeral protest case: Background

Posted on October 06, 2010
Background on Snyder v. Phelps, the oral argument discussed above: Phelps achieved notoriety with his protests at the funerals of military persons. Under the organization of the Westboro Baptist Church, consisting of Phelps and his family, the message of Phelps'...

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