Posts for April 10, 2015
These are the posts that are accumulated in our
newsletter which goes out every 4-6 days. The posts are organized by the major
units in our Con Law (5th ed.) textbook
I. Introduction to Law, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court [See TOPICS 1-10 in the 5th edition of Constitutional
Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to
this unit:
Sotomayor says Supreme Court gets politicized by others [AP, 4/9/15]: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor says any sense that the court is
political comes from outside groups, not the justices themselves.
The Clooneys Dine with Justice Sotomayor [NY Post, 4/9/15]:
II. Defining the Political System: Federalism and Checks and
Balances [See
TOPICS 11-15 in the 5th edition of Constitutional Law]
Here are recent articles that are relevant to this unit:
III. The Political
System: Voting and Campaigns [See TOPICS 16-20 in the 5th edition of Constitutional
Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this unit:
Calbuzz: Op-Ed:
Republicans, We Need a New Platform [CalBuzz,
4/10/15]: On election day, many Californians are more concerned with jobs, the
economy and healthcare than they are with gay marriage, abortion or
immigration.
IV. Criminal Law and Procedure (4th,
5th, 6th, and 8th amendments) [See TOPICS 21-28 in the 5th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent
articles that are relevant to this unit:
Supreme
Court gives new life to death penalty debate [USA Today, 4/9/15]: Kent Sprouse is set to die Thursday
by lethal injection, a method of execution botched so often lately that the
Supreme Court will weigh in on its constitutionality later this month.
V. 1st Amendment (Speech, Religion, Press and
Assembly) [See TOPICS
29-33 in the 5th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to
this unit:
Some 'Teachable' First Amendment
Moments in the Supreme Court's Oral Argument About Confederate Flags on Texas
License Plates [Justia,
4/10/15\: Professor Amar comments on the case currently before the U.S. Supreme
Court regarding Texas’s rejection of a custom license plate application that
included the Confederate flag. Specifically, Amar considers three First
Amendment issues raised during the recent oral argument for that case.
VI. 14th Amendment, Discrimination, Privacy, Working,
Citizenship & Immigration [See
TOPICS 34-41 in the 5th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to
this unit:
The
Coming Gay-Marriage Ruling [The New Yorker, 4/10/15]: The fight to bring
marriage equality to all fifty states heads to the Supreme Court again later
this month, with an extraordinary two and a half hours of oral argument set for
the morning of Tuesday, April 28th. The four cases before the Court deal with
marriage bans in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee. But their potential
repercussions are much broader.
South Carolina to SCOTUS: We Can Discriminate Against Women, So Why Not
Gays? [Slate, 4/9/15]: One key problem with originalism—the theory that the
Constitution should be interpreted as its drafters understood it—is that the
men who wrote our constitution had some pretty barbaric views about humanity.
Marriage Rights Won't Save Gays From
Being Fired in Most States [Bloomberg News, 4/9/15]: As the Supreme Court prepares to hear
arguments on same-sex marriage, a cloud hovers in more than half the states
A
Brilliant Originalist Argument for Marriage Equality [Slate,
4/10/15]: “In a recent article mocking South Carolina’s startling amicus brief in opposition to marriage equality, I noted
that anti-gay discrimination, like sex discrimination, probably isn’t forbidden
under an originalist reading of the 14th Amendment.”
50 years
of privacy since Griswold: Gertner, Suk and Tribe discuss landmark case [Harvard
Law Today, 4/3/15]: Fifty
years after the Supreme Court kicked off its line of “right to privacy” cases
with Griswold v. Connecticut,
which declared unconstitutional a state statute prohibiting couples from using
contraceptives, a panel of three Harvard Law professors met to discuss the
impact and legacy of the landmark case.
Support
Gay Teens, Not Bad Laws [Bloomberg View, 4/9/15]: So-called conversion therapies to
make gay people straight are based on poor science or none, and U.S. President
Barack Obama was right to condemn them. But the president was wrong to encourage the passage
of more laws like the one in California that bans the use of such therapy on
minors.
International Law, Citizenship and Immigration [TOPIC 40-42]
Rights groups take UK government to
European Human Rights Court over mass surveillance [Jurist, 4/10/15]: Amnesty
International revealed on Friday that the group, along with other prominent
human rights organizations, has submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights,
bringing claims of indiscriminate surveillance practices against the UK government.
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