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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

President Obama and Open Government

Posted on January 23, 2009
President Obama issued a memorandum on Wednesday committing the administration to more open government. (I posted on another open-government effort by the administration here.) Among the principles set out in the memorandum: Government should be transparent...

Even More OLC Memos

Posted on January 22, 2009
I posted just over a week ago that the OLC was releasing Bush-era legal memos on issues of interest in the prior administration. The OLC released another batch last week; check them out here. Below is a cut-and-paste of the...

Obama on Roe v. Wade

Posted on January 22, 2009
Many many websites and news outlets reporting on Obama's press statement, which does not (yet?) appear on www. whitehouse.gov, but reads as follows: On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we are reminded that this decision not only protects...

Al-Marri Brief at the Supreme Court

Posted on January 22, 2009
Lawyers for al-Marri yesterday filed their merits brief at the Supreme Court. I posted on the administration's request for an extension on its own merits brief here; my most recent post previous to that is here. The case, now captioned...

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Administration Requests Time to Review Al-Marri

Posted on January 22, 2009
The Obama administration has asked the Supreme Court for an extension of time to file its brief in Al-Marri v. Pucciarelli, the case involving the government's authority to indefinitely detain, without charges, a lawful U.S. resident, captured and held in...

President Obama Closes Secret Prisons, Guantanamo, and Halts Torture

Posted on January 22, 2009
President Obama today signed three executive orders closing overseas secret prisons, closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay within one year, and halting abusive interrogation techniques. The NYT reports here. Obama has yet to determine where to send Guantanamo detainees,...

Readers: Thank You for Your Support

Posted on January 22, 2009
Our just-short-of-4-month-old blog received its 10,000th visit earlier today, we've been named a top-50 Constitutional Law Blog by the Masters in Criminal Justice Blog, and we've received favorable reviews elsewhere. Thank you, readers, for your support! We are, of course,...

Obama (Re)Opens Presidential Records

Posted on January 22, 2009
President Obama yesterday issued an executive order reversing the Bush administration policy of allowing former Presidents or their designates to assert executive privilege and thus to protect certain presidential documents from public disclosure. The new EO returns to policies of...

President Obama Halts Guantanamo Prosecutions

Posted on January 21, 2009
The NYT reports that President Obama ordered a halt to military tribunal prosecutions of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The move is part of the new administration's plan to close the detention facility, but there's no word as to what the...

Robson on Teaching Marbury with PowerPoint

Posted on January 21, 2009
The Con Law Prof Blog's very own Ruthann Robson (CUNY Law) gave an outstanding presentation at the Association of American Law Schools annual conference on the effective use of PowerPoint--yes, it can be effective--in teaching Marbury v. Madison. I suspect...

Presidential Oath

Posted on January 21, 2009
It's one of those rare spots of specificity in the Constitution - Article II section I provides that before a President "enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--" -"I do solemnly swear...

ConLawProf in Obama Administration

Posted on January 20, 2009
ConLawProf Marty Lederman, of Georgetown, has joined the Office of Legal Counsel. Here's the mention from thinkprogress: Over the past few years, Lederman?s legal blogging at Balkanization has provided invaluable insight and strength to critics of key Bush policies, including...

EXECUTIVE BLOG

Posted on January 20, 2009
The inauguration of Barak Obama as the 44th President of the United States is a sign and promise of many changes AND one of those is the new whitehouse website - - - www.whitehouse.gov - - - with its own...

Call for Ideas: Con Law Section Program, AALS 2010 Annual Conference

Posted on January 20, 2009
Plans are (already!) underway for the Constitutional Law Section program at the 2010 Association of American Law Schools Annual Conference. Please e-mail section Chair Rick Garnett (Notre Dame, rgarnett@nd.edu) with ideas and suggestions for the program...

The Sunday Reader: Bronin on the Myths and Realities of Special Municipal Utility Districts

Posted on January 19, 2009
With the Supreme Court now poised to take up Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District v. Mukasey, the case challenging Congress's reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act (Section 5)--my previous post on this is here--you might reasonably ask (as I did):...

FISA Court Upholds Surveillance Program

Posted on January 19, 2009
Last week the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review--the appellate panel under FISA--affirmed a lower FISA court ruling that the Protect America Act of 2007 did not violate the Fourth Amendment. The redacted opinion is here. The PAA authorizes...

Poverty and Con Law - Saturday Evening Review

Posted on January 17, 2009
Even if law students comply with Justice Scalia's widely reported remark last year admonishing them not to enroll in waste-of-time courses such as "Law and Poverty," it might not be sufficient to insulate students from the legal problems of poverty...

The People and the Judiciary

Posted on January 17, 2009
The Federalist Society 2008 National Lawyers Convention is available online. The program, which explores the role of the judiciary, includes an impressive and extensive line-up from the bench, the bar, and academia. I especially recommend the Friday afternoon session titled...

The Road From Lincoln to Obama: The Constitution and the New Birth of Freedom

Posted on January 17, 2009
The American Constitution Society, the NAACP LDF, MALDEF, and the Constitutional Accountability Center co-hosted a lunch-time panel discussion this past Wednesday on the "new birth of freedom" that Lincoln spoke of at Gettysburg and the Reconstruction Amendments...

Right to Counsel in Truancy Proceedings

Posted on January 16, 2009
The Washington Court of Appeals--Washington's intermediate appellate court--ruled this week that children in truancy proceedings have a right to counsel (appointed by the district) as a matter of due process. The opinion is here. The court used the familiar Mathews...

Posner on Judicial Review

Posted on January 15, 2009
Richard Posner's review of Law and Judicial Duty by Philip Hamburger (Harvard U Press, 2008), appears in The New Republic, available online here. Posner begins by calling judicial review the "most momentous, controversial, even frightening power of the federal judiciary--the...

Another Guantanamo Detainee Ordered Released

Posted on January 15, 2009
Judge Richard Leon (D.D.C.) yesterday ordered detainee Mohammed El Gharani released. This is the second time--both within the last 30 days--that Judge Leon ordered a detainee released for lack of sufficient evidence. WaPo reports here; Judge Leon's Memorandum Order is...

Same-Sex Marriage Update

Posted on January 14, 2009
Yesterday, a state legislator in Maine introduced a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. This is particularly noteworthy because, as the ACLU of Maine notes, while several states have judicially recognized such a right, Maine would be...

Detainee Qahtani Tortured, says Crawford

Posted on January 14, 2009
Susan Crawford, the administration's official in charge of deciding to bring Guantanamo detainees to trial, said that "[w]e tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani," according to Bob Woodward's story in today's WaPo. Crawford dismissed war crimes charges against Qahtani in May 2008 because...

Congressional Research Grants

Posted on January 13, 2009
Congressional Research Awards from the Dirksen Congressional Center - deadline February 1, 2009. Here's some info adapted from the Dirksen Center website: The Dirksen Congressional Center invites applications for grants to fund research on congressional leadership and the U...

Inauguration Rhetoric

Posted on January 13, 2009
Like a good constitutional law case, a Presidential Inauguration address avails itself of effective rhetoric. As we anticipate Obama's speech next Tuesday, there is an urge to take a look at past efforts by US and other world leaders. NARRATIVE...

Burris Cleared (but only with Sec'y of State's Signature)

Posted on January 12, 2009
The Senate cleared Roland Burris this afternoon as a temporary replacement to fill President-Elect Barack Obama's seat. NYT The Caucus reports here. This was the constitutional thing to do, but the Senate did it for the wrong constitutional reasons. The...

Voting Rights at the Roberts Court

Posted on January 12, 2009
Linda Greenhouse published this op-ed piece last week (1/9) in the NYT on Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District v. Mukasey, the case challenging Congress's reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act preclearance procedure now headed for the Supreme Court...

Working while Gay - Equal Protection Issue

Posted on January 12, 2009
Yesterday, Pandagon.com reported an interesting story out of Tennessee. Apparently, Mr. David Hill was fired by a hotel owner for being homosexual. Let?s talk about this in four ways. First, let?s pretend for the moment that the hotel is a...

Heller update

Posted on January 12, 2009
Adam Winkler, ConLawProf at UCLA, posted an update on Heller on The Huffington Post here and it has been making the rounds amongst law students. Perhaps because I gave a Heller issue on the final exam last semester, a student...

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