Posts for April 15, 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 (5^th ed.) textbook

Sandra Day O'Connor's post-court legacy: Civics games [USA Today, 4/14/15]: When historians someday ponder the legacy of former U.S. Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor, they'll have no shortage of material.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/04/14/oconnor-civics-games-legacy/25505871/

I. Introduction to Law, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court [See TOPICS 1-10 in the 5^th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this unit:

Happy Birthday, Magna Carta! [Concurring Opinions, 4/15/15]: If you were to ask William Shakespeare, or one of his contemporaries, when Magna Carta was issued, he would likely tell you that it was issued in the ninth year of King Henry III, or 1225. 

http://concurringopinions.com/archives/2015/04/happy-790th-magna-carta.html

II. Defining the Political System: Federalism and Checks and Balances [See TOPICS 11-15 in the 5^th 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 5^th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this unit:

IV. Criminal Law and Procedure (4^th, 5^th, 6^th, and 8^th amendments) [See TOPICS 21-28 in the 5^th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this unit:

Lawsuit seeks to legalize prostitution in California [Sac. Business Journ., 4/14/15]:  Lou Sirkin and Brian O’Connor of Cincinnati-based Santen & Hughes, filed the case last month in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on behalf of an organization representing prostitutes known as the Erotic Service Provider Legal, Education & Research Project.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2015/04/14/lawsuit-seeks-to-legalize-prostitution-california.html

Cheaters Never Prosper. But they hardly ever get punished this severely. [The Marshall Project / CNS, 4/14/15]: On April 14 Judge Jerry Baxter sentenced eight of the educators convicted in the Atlanta cheating scandal to prison terms of between one and seven years. 

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/04/09/cheaters-never-prosper?ref=hp-3-112

http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/04/14/eight-get-jail-time-in-atlanta-cheating-case.htm

Ignorance of the Law [Slate, 4/14/15]: A recent Supreme Court ruling allows the kind of traffic stop that led to Walter Scott’s death.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/04/why_michael_slager_pulled_over_walter_scott_cops_who_don_t_know_the_law.html

The Death Penalty Deserves the Death Penalty [The New Yorker, 4/14/15]: At the end of this month, the Supreme Court will reckon with execution by lethal injection in Glossip v. Gross, the case of Oklahoma death-row inmates who are challenging the three-drug protocol that the state has chosen to carry out death sentences.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-death-penalty-deserves-the-death-penalty

V. 1^st Amendment (Speech, Religion, Press and Assembly) [See TOPICS 29-33 in the 5^th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this unit:

VI. 14^th Amendment, Discrimination, Privacy, Working, Citizenship & Immigration [See TOPICS 34-41 in the 5^th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this unit: