Posts for June 7, 2015

These are the posts that are accumulated in our newsletter which goes out every 4-6 days during the school year. The posts are organized by the major units in our Con Law (5^th ed.) student textbook.

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:

Supreme Advocate [Cal Lawyer, June 2015]: Jeffrey Fisher, co-director of Stanford's Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, has argued more than 22 cases before SCOTUS.

http://callawyer.com/clstory.cfm?eid=941300&wteid=941300_Supreme_Advocate

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:

The Presumption of Constitutionality [Gerard Magliocca in Concurring Opinions, 6/6/15]: “As part of my research on separation of powers, I’ve been asking myself the following:  Why is an Act of Congress presumed to be constitutional?  The Supreme Court has said that this is true many times, and this presumption is important. Randy Barnett made a major contribution by pointing out that you could instead have a “presumption of liberty” in certain situations.”

http://concurringopinions.com/archives/2015/06/the-presumption-of-constitutionality.html

The American Presidency [TOPIC 15]

This Is How America Will Remember Barack Obama [Nat Journ, 6/6/15]:  So much of a politician's life is choreographed but the pain of Joe Biden's loss was real for this president. And America witnessed it live on television. In an age when so many political moments are scripted, this was real. In a country whose presidents and vice presidents have rarely been close, this was genuine closeness. In an administration that prides itself on being hip, this was decidedly old-fashioned love.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/this-is-how-america-will-remember-barack-obama-20150606

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:

Legislation and the Legislative Process (TOPIC 20)

McConnell backs away from judicial shutdown talk [The Hill, 6/6/15]: Mitch McConnell is denying there’s a shutdown on President Obama’s federal court nominees —despite comments the Senate majority leader made on Thursday indicating such a freeze.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/244196-mcconnell-backs-away-from-judicial-shutdown-talk

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

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:

Commentary on the Facebook threats case, Elonis, continues:

The Court issued its much-anticipated decision in Elonis v. United States,  reversing a Pennsylvania man’s conviction for making threats on Facebook. Lyle Denniston covered the decision for the SCOTUS blog, with other coverage coming from NPR’s Nina Totenberg, Mark Walsh at Education Week’s School Law Blog Jaclyn Belczyk of JURIST, and Jeff John Roberts of Fortune (via MSN). Commentary comes from Ruthann Robson at Constitutional Law Prof Blog, Noah Feldman at Bloomberg View, Daniel Fisher of Forbes, Ilya Shapiro at Cato at Liberty, Margaret Drew at the Human Rights at Home Blog, Kent Scheidegger at Crime and Consequences (in three posts), and Angus Johnston at Student Activism.

See: http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/06/tuesday-round-up-276/#more-228661

Denniston: http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/06/opinion-analysis-internet-threats-still-in-legal-limbo/

Totenberg on NPR: http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/01/411352736/threatened-online-supreme-court-says-prosecutors-must-prove-intent

Walsh: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2015/06/supreme_court_tosses_convictio.html

Jurist: http://jurist.org/paperchase/2015/06/supreme-court-limits-convictions-for-online-threats.php

Fortune: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/facebook-rants-are-not-criminal-supreme-court-rules/ar-BBkua3n?ocid=iehp

Con Law Prof’s Blog: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/conlaw/2015/06/supreme-court-dodges-first-amendment-issue-in-facebook-threats-case.html

Feldman at Bloomberg: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-06-01/facebook-threats-case-is-hardly-over

Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml

Cato At Liberty: http://www.cato.org/blog/supreme-court-protects-right-make-negligent-facebook-posts

Drew: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/human_rights/

Crime & Consequences:

http://www.crimeandconsequences.com/crimblog/2015/06/-confident-mr-elonis-will-be-v.html

http://www.crimeandconsequences.com/crimblog/2015/06/why-did-elonis-take-six-months.html

Student Activism: http://studentactivism.net/2015/06/01/why-todays-elonis-decision-is-a-victory-in-the-fight-against-online-harassment/

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:

International Law, Citizenship and Immigration [TOPIC 40-42]

Saudi Court upholds 10 year prison sentence, 1,000 lashes for blogger [Jurist, 6/7/15]: A Saudi court on Sunday upheld blogger Raif Badawi's sentence of 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for "insulting Islam through electronic channels." The blogger ran The Liberal Saudi Network for 4 years before being arrested by Saudi authorities. Badawi was originally charged with insulting Islam for co-founding the religious discussion website Free Saudi Liberals. 

http://jurist.org/paperchase/2015/06/saudi-court-upholds-10-year-prison-sentence-1000-lashes-for-blogger.php