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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

Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell Military Policy

Posted on December 18, 2010
The United States Senate has passed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, H.R.2965, by a vote of 65-31 (with 4 Senators not voting). Senator Reid had filed for cloture on the bill on Thursday. Obama is expected...

Ninth Circuit Upholds State Armenian Genocide Victim Protection

Posted on December 17, 2010
A divided three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit last Friday upheld California's law providing for a cause of action by Armenian Genocide victims (or their ancestors) against insurance companies that sold them a policy in Europe or Asia between 1875....

U.S. to Support UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Posted on December 17, 2010
President Obama announced yesterday at the White House Tribal Nations Conference that the U.S. will now lend its support to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration is a non-binding treaty designed to protect the human....

Ireland's Abortion Criminalization at the European Court of Human Rights

Posted on December 16, 2010
In a lengthy decision today, the European Court of Human Rights (the Grand Chamber) held Ireland's criminalization of abortion contravened the European Convention on Human Rights as to one of the three women litigants. Central to the decision in Case...

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Animal Porn - Criminalized by Federal Law Again

Posted on December 14, 2010
Without much fanfare, President Obama signed into law the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010, intended to cure the defects of the previous law, held unconstitutional last April in United States v. Stevens. In Stevens, the Court affirmed the...

Health Care Reform Unconstitutional, District Judge Rules

Posted on December 13, 2010
Judge Henry Hudson (E.D. Va.) today in Virginia v. Sebelius ruled the individual health-insurance mandate in the federal health care reform package unconstitutional. Judge Hudson ruled that the individual mandate exceeded Congress's authority under the Commerce Clause, the Necessary and...

Supreme Court Denies Certiorari in Lawyer Advertising Case

Posted on December 13, 2010
Last March, the Second Circuit in Alexander v. Cahill affirmed a declaration that substantial portions of the New York's professional responsibility rules were unconstitutional. Today, the United States Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiorari...

Porteous Impeachment

Posted on December 13, 2010
The Senate, sitting as a Court of Impeachment, voted last week to convict U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. (E.D. La.), on all four articles of impeachment passed by the House. Porteous is only the eighth federal judge removed...

"Hippies"

Posted on December 12, 2010
There has been a resurgence of "hippies" in political and constitutional discourse. Yet another example is Paul Krugman's post today at the NYT. Krugman criticizes a column in WaPo by Dana Millbank for praising President Obama for "punching the hippies"...

Redistricting, in Plain English

Posted on December 09, 2010
Justin Levitt and Erika Wood of the Brennan Center recently released A Citizen's Guide to Redistricting, a plain-spoken, but quite thorough, examination of political, policy, and constitutional issues related to legislative redistricting--just in time for the spate of activity next...

Jim Morrison Pardoned

Posted on December 09, 2010
As the New York Times reports Florida's clemency board has unamiously voted to pardon Jim Morrison posthumously. Our discussion last month of the possibility of pardon for the indecent exposure and profanity trial and possible First Amendment problems is here...

IMAGINE: A Quick ConLaw Quiz on the 30th Anniversary of John Lennon's Murder

Posted on December 08, 2010
Closed book: no use of notes, databases, internet or other sources. Q: Name that footnote (Name of case and author of footnote) The lyrics are as follows: ?Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us...

Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting Oral Argument Analysis: An Arizona Immigration Statute Before the Supreme Court

Posted on December 08, 2010
The Court heard oral argument this morning in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting, a constitutional challenge on Supremacy Clause/preemption grounds to the Legal Arizona Workers Act, Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. � 23-211 et seq., that sanctions employers for knowingly or...

Court Dismisses Targeted Killing Case

Posted on December 07, 2010
Judge John D. Bates (D.D.C.) today dismissed Nasser Al-Aulaqi's case on behalf of his son, Anwar Al-Aulaqi, to stop the administration from killing his son. Anwar is a U.S. citizen tagged by the Obama administration as a terrorist and targeted...

Karlan on Judicial Activism

Posted on December 06, 2010
In a column for Boston Review, Pamela Karlan - - - once mentioned as a possible Obama Supreme Court nominee - - - provides her perspective on judicial activism, including her observation that the phrase ?judicial activist? (or ?activist judge?)...

Pay Czar is Constitutional, OLC Rules

Posted on December 06, 2010
The Office of Legal Counsel released a memo late last month opining that the "Pay Czar" is an inferior officer and therefore not subject to Senate advice and consent under the Appointments Clause. The upshot: The Pay Czar is constitutional....

Prop 8 Perry v. Schwarzenegger Oral Argument in Ninth Circuit

Posted on December 06, 2010
The extensive oral argument in Perry v. Schwarzenegger has just concluded before a panel of the Ninth Circuit. In Perry, federal district judge Walker found California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional, and the case is on appeal under an expedited schedule...

Tobacco Companies Appeal Class Action Judgment to Supreme Court

Posted on December 04, 2010
Tobacco companies Philip Morris, Brown & Williamson, R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard, and The Tobacco Institute filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the Supreme Court last Thursday to appeal a $271 million judgment in a class action in Louisiana state...

Proposition 8 Appeal in Ninth Circuit: Updates and Recusal Controversies

Posted on December 02, 2010
Perry v. Schwazenegger, in which a federal district judge found California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional, is on appeal to the Ninth Circuit, under an expedited schedule and including the issue of the standing of the proponents. The three judge panel, pictured...

Speeders Not Similarly Situated: District Judge Dismisses Equal Protection Claim

Posted on December 01, 2010
Here?s the problem: In the District of Columbia, motorists stopped by police officers and charged with speeding more than 30 mph over the speed limit are subject to automatic arrest, as well as possible criminal prosecution, a fine of $300,...

Federal Judge Dismisses Case Against Health Care Reform

Posted on December 01, 2010
Judge Norman Moon (W.D. Va.) today dismissed Liberty University v. Geithner, a case filed by state lawmakers, a doctor, Liberty University, and individuals challenging the federal healthcare reform legislation. The plaintiffs argued that the legislation exceeds Congress's Article I authority,...

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Report: Recommendations for Repeal of Military Policy

Posted on November 30, 2010
The Report of the Comprehensive Review of the Issues Associated with a Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has just been issued by the Department of Defense. In its 250plus pages, the report concludes that the overall effect of a...

Remedy for Unconstitutional Conditions in California Prisons?: Schwarzenegger v. Plata Oral Argument Analysis

Posted on November 30, 2010
The overcrowding in California's prison system that prevents the adequate treatment of the mental and physical health of prisoners in violation of the Eighth Amendment was the subject of today's oral argument in Schwarzenegger v. Plata. Yet the issue is...

High Court to Rule on Arizona's Public Campaign Funding Act

Posted on November 29, 2010
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear Arizona Free Enterprise v. Bennett (consolidated with McComish v. Bennett), a case involving Arizona's public campaign funding system. Under the system, candidates who participate in the State's public campaign finance program qualify for...

Access and the Right to an Interpreter

Posted on November 26, 2010
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled earlier this week in Ling v. State that a criminal defendant who spoke Mandarin Chinese, and not English, "may be effectively incompetent to proceed in a criminal matter and rendered effectively absent at trial if...

Elimination of Violence Against Women Day

Posted on November 25, 2010
In addition to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women as proclaimed by the UN. The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women was adopted by the UN...

Second Circuit Declares Vermont Pharma Anti-Datamining and Detailing Statute Unconstitutional

Posted on November 23, 2010
Reversing the district judge, a divided panel of the Second Circuit has declared unconstitutional Vermont's prohibition of the sale and use of prescriber-identifiable data. In its opinion in IMS v. Sorrell today, the panel majority found that the Vermont statute,...

Mayeri on Fronterio

Posted on November 23, 2010
Serena Mayeri's article, "When the Trouble Started": The Story of Frontiero v. Richardson, available on ssrn, provides an important perspective on the military as the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy continues to make news. Mayeri tells the story of Sharron...

D.C. Circuit on Prolonged GPS Surveillance

Posted on November 22, 2010
A sharply divided D.C. Circuit voted to deny en banc review on Friday of a panel ruling that the government's prolonged, warrantless surveillance of an individual by GPS attached to his car was an unreasonable search in violation of the...

Republican Senators File Amicus Opposing Health Care Reform

Posted on November 21, 2010
Thirty-three Republican Senators filed an amicus brief in the Northern District of Florida case challenging federal health care reform. (We posted yesterday that state lawmakers filed their own amicus supporting reform.) The Republicans' brief collects and restates the several well...

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