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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

Constitutional Torts Symposium at Fordham

Posted on March 17, 2011
More information here. RR

Is DOMA's Demise Imminent?

Posted on March 16, 2011
The judicial finding that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, preceded by DOJ's vigorous defense of DOMA in another case, some waffling, and then the announcement that the DOJ will not defend the constitutionality of DOMA, which some characterized...

Drake Symposium: Debating the Living Constitution

Posted on March 14, 2011
The Drake Law School Constitutional Law Center recently announced its 2011 Symposium, "Debating the Living Constitution." The Symposium is Saturday, April 2, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Drake; more information, including a registration form, is here. Here's the line-up:...

Democracy and Workers Rights: West Virginia Weekend

Posted on March 13, 2011
As the legislative battle in Wisconsin continued on Friday with the enactment of a bill which limited collective bargaining rights of most state employees, similar disputes are simmering across the country. Along with Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa, and Idaho, among others,...

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Pugliese on CIA Torture at Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities

Posted on March 12, 2011
The keynote lecture Friday evening at this year's conference of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities was Anatomies of Torture: CIA Black Sites and Redacted Bodies, delivered by Joseph Pugliese (pictured) of Macquarie University in...

Happy Birthday Justice Scalia?

Posted on March 10, 2011
Linda Greenhouse points out that Friday March 11 is Scalia's 75th birthday, but her wishes are not necessarily warm ones. Instead, Greenhouse discusses Scalia's "bullying" of his junior colleagues, notably the female ones. She focuses on Scalia's dissenting opinion in...

CFP: Secrecy, National Security, and the Vindication of Constitutional Law

Posted on March 10, 2011
For a Conference in Milan, Italy on December 1-2, 2011, with proposals due April 24, 2011. In virtually every nation, assertions of the need for secrecy on matters of counterterrorism policy and practice have created tensions with efforts to ensure...

School District Ban on T-Shirt Violates First Amendment

Posted on March 07, 2011
A three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit ruled last week in Zamecnik v. Indian Prairie School District #204 that officials at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois, violated the First Amendment when they prohibited a student from sporting a...

President Orders Review of Guantanamo Detainees

Posted on March 07, 2011
President Obama today issued an executive order providing for "periodic review of individuals detained at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force." The move suggests that the White House won't achieve its goal to...

International Women's Day, Women in Combat, and Military Leadership Diversity

Posted on March 07, 2011
As the centenary of international women's day, March 8, approaches, the end of combat restrictions on women in the United States military also seems to be ending. In Rostker v. Goldberg, 1981, the United States Supreme Court upheld the Congressional....

Judge Vinson Stays Ruling Declaring Federal Health Care Reform Unconstitutional

Posted on March 04, 2011
Judge Vinson (N.D. Fla.) on Thursday stayed his ruling that the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act was unconstitutional. (Recall that Judge Vinson ruled in January that the individual health insurance mandate exceeded congressional authority and was unseverable from...

Libby Adler's Rights Critique, Law Reform, and Responses

Posted on March 03, 2011
Harvard Civil Rights - Civil Liberties Journal has held an online forum on Professor Libby Adler?s piece (available on the forum) entitled ?Gay Rights and Lefts: Rights Critique and Distributive Analysis for Real Law Reform." Adler, author of The Gay...

Does the Obama DOJ's Position on DOMA Create a Constitutional Crisis? Redux

Posted on March 02, 2011
The DOJ's decision not to defend the constitutionality of DOMA, but to continue to enforce DOMA, is being illustrated in a few examples, such as that of Karen Golinski, the lawyer who works for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals...

Right to Counsel in India

Posted on March 02, 2011
The Supreme Court of India ruled last week in Ali v. State of Assam that a criminal defendant has a right to counsel under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Article 21, Protection of life and personal liberty, provides:...

Court Rules First Amendment Protects Funeral Protesters

Posted on March 02, 2011
The Supreme Court ruled today in Snyder v. Phelps that the First Amendment protected Reverend Fred Phelps's hateful and harmful speech at the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder against state tort claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress...

Events for March 2011

Posted on March 01, 2011
March is always a busy month for conferences, lectures, events, and symposia. Here are a few that you might not want to miss. Food Fight, March 1, 6.30 pm, organized by the law review at City University of New York...

O'Neill on Constitutional Argument

Posted on February 28, 2011
Professor Tim O'Neill (John Marshall, Chicago) recently posted on SSRN his eclectic and highly engaging article Constitutional Argument as Jeremiad--an argument about the structure of constitutional rhetoric. O'Neill treats us to more than familiar legal and philosophical fare; instead, he...

Local Government and Constitutional Funding: West Virginia Weekend

Posted on February 27, 2011
With the new "austerity" budgets as well as efforts to ban collective bargaining by government employees, local governments are considering their options. In Ohio, The Local Government Fund Coalition launched this week. The state legislatures of Wyoming, Nevada, South Dakota,...

Iowa Supreme Court Update

Posted on February 25, 2011
The Governor of Iowa did not choose Professor Angela Onwuachi-Willig to fill one of the three vacancies on the Iowa Supreme Court resulting from last November's election, a possibility we last discussed here. The process of selecting Iowa's judges is...

The Obama DOJ's Position on DOMA: Constitutional Crisis or Constitutional Opportunity?

Posted on February 25, 2011
The Obama DOJ's announcement that it will no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act has provoked a range of reactions. New Gingrinch, in the video below (via) states that the president "is not a one-person Supreme...

District Court Upholds Health Insurance Mandate

Posted on February 24, 2011
Judge Gladys Kessler (D.D.C.) on Tuesday upheld the individual health insurance mandate in the federal health reform package, the Affordable Care Act. Judge Kessler granted the government's motion to dismiss the case, Mead v. Holder, handing the government its third...

Obama DOJ: Holder Announces DOMA will Not be Defended because it is Unconstitutional

Posted on February 23, 2011
Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States, informed Congress today that "After careful consideration, including review of a recommendation from me, the President of the United States has made the determination that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage...

Libya's "Constitution"

Posted on February 22, 2011
One of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's sons, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, delivered a speech on Monday that blamed protests on everyone from criminals to Islamic extremists, warned of civil war if the protests continue, and said his father would fight to...

The Tenth Amendment, Standing, and Criminal Conviction: Bond v. US Oral Argument

Posted on February 22, 2011
The Court heard oral argument today in Bond v. United States which involves the criminal conviction of Carol Ann Bond for a violation of 18 U.S.C. � 229(a), enacted by Congress to implement the United States? treaty obligations under an...

Presidents' Day: Where Are the Women?

Posted on February 21, 2011
"Where Are the Women?" is a query that is not limited to the category of United States Presidents. Consider Lynn E. Ford's work on women and politics, especially their complete absence in South Carolina elected office; or the lack of...

Voter Identification Laws and the Discourse of "Free and Fair Elections": West Virginia Weekend Spotlight on Atiba Ellis

Posted on February 20, 2011
A cornerstone of democracy is the "free and fair election." Recent events in Egypt and less dramatic ones in West Virginia have demonstrated the importance of the ballot box. Moreover, some argue that the acts of the Wisconsin governor should...

Can Congress Regulate Supreme Court Ethics?

Posted on February 19, 2011
At least one representative thinks so. Chris Murphy is suggesting legislation that would: apply the Judicial Conference's Code of Conduct, which applies to all other federal judges, to Supreme Court justices. This would allow the public to access more timely...

Ediberto Roman on Citizenship's Constitutional Dimensions

Posted on February 18, 2011
In Citizenship and its Exclusions: A Classical, Constitutional, and Critical Race Critique, Professor Ediberto Roman offers a highly readable and trenchant discussion of historical and contemporary citizenship. Roman begins by discussing the cases of three "terrorists": John Walker Lindh, Yaser...

Lawrence in Louisiana: Lawsuit Challenges Sex Offender Registration Scheme

Posted on February 17, 2011
In the landmark case of Lawrence v. Texas, the United States Supreme Court held a statute criminalizing sodomy violated due process as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The opinion specifically noted that the case did not involve commercial sex...

New York Chief Judge Calls for Equal Access, Civil Counsel

Posted on February 16, 2011
New York Chief Judge Lippman today delivered the State of the Judiciary address--a speech dominated by calls for open courts and access to justice. (Click on the link for the 2011 State of the Judiciary web-cast.) Chief Judge Lippman focused...

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