Constitutional Law Prof Blog: Constitutional Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Constitutional Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

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

Use of Foreign Law: Humor

Posted on January 23, 2011
The jurisprudential and political controversy regarding the use of "foreign" law by the United States Supreme Court has prompted some humor from The Onion: WASHINGTON?The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it would have to review two weeks' worth of...

West Virginia Weekend: Is the State Itself Unconstitutional?

Posted on January 23, 2011
The recent constitutional controversies that have arisen in West Virginia are particular, but hardly unique. Similar problems of succession under state constitutions can affect any number of states: recall the situation in New York in the summer of 2009...

Iowa District Judge Pratt Dismisses Challenge to Iowa Judicial Selection

Posted on January 20, 2011
On November 2, 2010, three Iowa Supreme Court justices stood for retention and were not retained by the voters of Iowa. This result is widely assumed to be attributable to the campaign against the judges based upon the Iowa Supreme...

The Two Faces of Hudson's Commerce Clause

Posted on January 19, 2011
Professor Corey Rayburn Yung (John Marshall, Chicago) wrote earlier this month on St. Louis Today that Judge Hudson (E.D. Va.) hasn't been entirely consistent in his views on the Commerce Clause. Recall: Judge Hudson ruled last month that the individual...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

General Dynamics Argument Sheds Little Light on State Secrets

Posted on January 19, 2011
The Supreme Court yesterday heard oral argument in General Dynamics Corp. v. United States and The Boeing Company v. United States, the consolidated cases arising out of a government contract gone bad and dealing with just a little corner of...

West Virginia Supreme Court Orders Special Election

Posted on January 19, 2011
A week after hearing oral argument on the petition for writ of mandamus to order an election for Governor, the state's highest court has granted the petition with respect to the Acting Governor, Earl Ray Tomblin (picured right). In the...

Martin Luther King Day

Posted on January 17, 2011
The official government website, MLKDay.gov, names the day a national day of service. Here is King's last speech in 1968, referencing the Constitution including the First Amendment. RR

Global Constitutionalism CFP

Posted on January 16, 2011
GLOBAL CONSTITUTIONALISM (Glob-Con), a new journal forthcoming in January 2012, has issued a Call for Papers. Global Constitutionalism ? World of Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law (Glob-Con) seeks to promote a deeper understanding on the foundations, limitations...

West Virginia Weekend: When will there be an elected governor?

Posted on January 15, 2011
West Virginia continues to play host to numerous constitutional uncertainties initially sparked by the death of longtime U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd and the special election of then-Governor Joe Manchin (D) to fill the senatorial vacancy. This past Tuesday, West...

Davis and Kalb on Anti-International Law Initiatives

Posted on January 14, 2011
Profs. Martha Davis (Northeastern) and Johanna Kalb (Loyola New Orleans) recently released an American Constitution Society Issue Brief, Oklahoma State Question 755 and an Analysis of Anti-International Law Initiatives. We most recently posted on Oklahoma's vote to amend its constitution...

Arizona Passes Funeral Picketing Statute

Posted on January 12, 2011
Prompted by concerns over planned protests at the funerals of victims of Saturday's shootings, Arizona passed emergency legislation. Arizona SB1101 provides: 13-2930. Unlawful protest activities; classification; definition A. A PERSON SHALL NOT PICKET OR ENGAGE IN OTHER PROTEST ACTIVITIES, AND...

Constitution Worship: Jill Lepore in The New Yorker

Posted on January 11, 2011
Worth reading is a commentary by critic Jill Lepore in the January 17 issue of The New Yorker entitled The Commandments: the Constitution and its worshippers. Lepore (pictured right) puts the current highlighting of the Constitution, including its (edited) reading...

Justice Thomas: Denial Nullifies Recent Commerce Clause Jurisprudence

Posted on January 11, 2011
Justice Thomas dissented yesterday (joined by Justice Scalia) in a denial of review of a case that the Court might have used to clarify the scope of the Commerce Clause. Instead, Justice Thomas argued, the Court in denying review "tacitly...

Judge John Roll

Posted on January 10, 2011
Judge John McCarthy Roll, Chief Judge of the United States District of Arizona, was killed by gunfire Saturday. Appointed by President Bush in 1991, Roll's Federal Judicial Center profile is here and his judgepedia profile is here. Extensive coverage of...

President Obama's Signing Statement on Guantanamo Restrictions

Posted on January 09, 2011
President Obama on Friday issued a signing statement upon signing HR 6523, the Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, taking issue with the restrictions on his authority to transfer Guantanamo detainees. We most recently posted on...

Reading of the Constitution in the U.S. House of Representatives

Posted on January 07, 2011
Just in case you missed it today: SDS

Challenge to Foreign National Campaign Contributions To Go Forward

Posted on January 07, 2011
Judge Ricardo Urbina (D.D.C.) today granted an application by two foreign nationals, plaintiffs in Bluman v. FEC, for a three-judge panel under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) to challenge the Act's restriction on campaign contributions and expenditures...

State Lawmakers Take on Birthright Citizenship

Posted on January 06, 2011
A group of state lawmakers yesterday announced a coordinated multi-state initiative to tee up the Fourteenth Amendment Citizenship Clause for judicial review. The NYT reports here; LAT here; NLJ here. The Citizenship Clause in Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment...

White House Reaction to Congressional Limits on G-mo Closing

Posted on January 04, 2011
ProPublica's Dafna Linzer wrote today on the Huffington Post that the Obama administration is considering how to react to congressional limits on transferring Guantanamo detainees to the United States (even for Article III trials) and on closing the detention facility...

Do Prop 8 Proponents Have Standing to Appeal?

Posted on January 04, 2011
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit today asked the California Supreme Court whether proponents of Proposition 8, the same-sex marraige ban, have standing to appeal the district court's ruling that Prop 8 is unconstitutional. (The panel also upheld the...

County, Board, Deputy Clerk Lack Standing to Intervene in Prop 8 Appeal

Posted on January 04, 2011
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled today that the County of Imperial, its Board of Supervisors, and a Deputy Clerk for the County lacked standing to appeal on the merits the district court order holding Proposition 8, the...

Filibuster Reform

Posted on January 04, 2011
As the 112th Congress prepares to convene tomorrow, there's talk once again of filibuster reform in the Senate. In recent practice, the Senate rules allow a single Senator to force a 60-vote majority to end debate on any matter. Senate...

House Republicans and the Constitution

Posted on December 30, 2010
House Republicans yesterday released a proposed rules package for the 112th Congress that included two items related to the Constitution: Republicans have proposed a reading of the Constitution on the floor on January 6; and they have proposed a requirement...

Guantanamo Transfers and the Separation of Powers

Posted on December 28, 2010
President Obama last week signed a defense authorization bill that prohibits the use of federal funds to transfer any Guantanamo detainee into the United States, even for the purpose of prosecution in an Article III court. The provision raises serious...

Sotomayor and Kagan as Newsworthy

Posted on December 27, 2010
Justices Kagan and Sotomayor are newsworthy subjects in these waning days of 2010, and not only because they are half of the number of women who have ever served on the United States Supreme Court (as pictured below). However, while...

Happy Grading

Posted on December 25, 2010
It's that time of year. Deja Vu? Here for some helpful hints and commiserations. RR

Congressional Research Awards 2011

Posted on December 24, 2010
The Dirksen Congressional Center announced that it will accept applications for grants to fund research on Congress. From the announcement: The Center's first interest is to fund the study of the leadership in the Congress, both House and Senate. Topics...

Health Care Reform Challengers Return to Lochner Era

Posted on December 21, 2010
Simon Lazarus, public policy counsel at the National Senior Citizens Law Center, writes in the National Law Journal today that challenges to health care reform harken back to an earlier era of judicial activism, the Lochner Era. Lazarus writes that...

2010 Census

Posted on December 21, 2010
Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution requires an "actual Enumeration" every ten years for the purpose of distributing seats in the House of Representatives among the states. Today the Census Bureau released the results of its 23rd enumeration, the...

Marriage Panel at AALS

Posted on December 19, 2010
We've previously posted on the problems of marriage monopoly under constitutional federalism and the E-marriage solution proposed by Mae Kuykendall and Adam Candeub. The topic will be under discussion at AALS this January on a "hot topics" panel scheduled for...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

New Baptist Covenant Blog
Last week, I pointed to the New Baptist Convenant website, now onl...

The Mexico Trucker Blog
I've written before about the perceived problems with relaxed rest...

Case Law Development: Constitutional Challenge to Paternity Laws Dismissed For Failure to State Claim
A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals uphel...