Friday, April 10, 2015

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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