Posts for October 16, 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 (5th ed.) student 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:
Cooper v. Aaron and Judicial Authority:
Lessons From Little Rock [Huff Post, 10/2/15]: This week marks the anniversary of a
decision that has stirred debate about the constitutional role of the judiciary
for more than half a century.
Biden and the Supreme Court [New Yorker online,
10/13/15]: Joe Biden played a more consequential role in the
history of the Supreme Court than almost any senator in American history.
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:
Constitution
Check: Do Obamacare rules do enough to protect religious employers? [SCOTUS
blog, 10/15/15]: Lyle
Denniston, the National Constitution Center’s constitutional literacy adviser,
examines the core question that now surrounds the Affordable Care Act’s mandate
for employers to provide birth-control services to their employees or, for
colleges, to their students.
Supreme Court Landmark Case Dred Scott v. Sandford [C-SPAN, 10/12/15]: Guests talked about the 1857 Supreme
Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford, in which the court sided
7-2 with slavery.
Supreme
Court conundrum: How to make a lawsuit go away? [USA
Today, 10/14/15]: The
Supreme Court debated to a draw Wednesday over an unusual question with broad
implications for businesses and consumers: If a defendant in a civil case
offers to pay the plaintiff in full, is the lawsuit moot? Is it
settled? Or can it live on?
Supreme Court doubts federal authority to control
peak demand for power [USA Today, 10/14/15]: A federal regulation designed to
cut electricity consumption during hours of peak demand, reducing the risk
of blackouts and saving consumers billions of dollars, ran into resistance at
the Supreme Court Wednesday.
Abortion
at the Supreme Court's Door [Linda Greenhouse in the NY Times,
10/15/15]: Despite a
near-universal assumption that the Supreme
Court will take up an abortion case in its new term, the general chatter hasn’t
included much detail about the specific issue, the stakes or the prospects.
The
American Presidency
[TOPIC 15]
The Last of the President’s Men [Justia, 10/16/15]: John Dean gives a preview of Bob Woodward’s new book which recounts the experiences of Alex Butterfield in the Nixon White House. Dean explains the origin and significance of the title with respect to the subject matter and provides his insight into the book’s telling of Butterfield’s story.
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:
Clinton and Sanders clash
on gun control, but agree: Enough about the emails [McClatchy DC, 10/13/15]: Sharing a stage for
the first time, Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Democratic challengers hashed
out their differences Tuesday night over guns, foreign policy and Wall Street
regulation in a pointed but largely polite debate that underscored the broad
consensus among the party’s leading presidential contenders.
Insiders: A runaway
victory for Clinton [Politico /
CalBuzz / Wash Post, 10/13/15]: After her performance in the first presidential
debate, six in 10 Democrats say Joe Biden should not run. See the Post’s
fact-check also:
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/the-politico-caucus-democratic-debate-winner-loser-insider-214771
http://www.calbuzz.com/2015/10/dem-debate-changes-nada-hillarys-the-one/
http://www.calbuzz.com/2015/10/dem-debate-changes-nada-hillarys-the-one/
Saunders: CNN debate: The
revolution will be televised [Debra
Saunders in the SF Chron, 10/15/15]: Elections change how Americans think and
talk. Nowhere was the shift in the conversation more evident than in Las Vegas
Tuesday night at the Democrats’ first debate for the 2016 presidential
campaign.
Trump threatens to pull
out of next GOP debate [The
Hill, 10/15/15]: The Republican
front-runner's campaign objects to lack of opening and closing statements and
risk of a 2-plus-hour debate.
The Road Ahead:
California Politics Podcast [KQED,
10/15/15]: In several important ways,
the road ahead in California political circles became a little more clear this
week.
Top Biden aide lays out
potential 2016 platform [AP,
10/15/15]: Vice President Joe Biden would run an optimistic and unscripted
"campaign from the heart" based on restoring middle-class
opportunity, one of his top political advisers said Thursday, laying out for
the first time the argument Biden would make if he runs for president.
Legislation and the Legislative Process (TOPIC 20)
After
narrow 2012 loss, death penalty opponents plan 2016 measure [SF
Chron, 10/14/15]: With
public support for capital punishment declining, activists who fell just short
of winning a voter repeal of California's death penalty law in 2012 are
preparing for another attempt in November 2016.
California's sweeping new
social policies could set trend [AP,
10/13/15]: California's legislative season is ending with the state adopting
some of the country's most aggressive social policies. Lawmakers hope that sets
the bar for other states to do the same.
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
What
Happens to Old Sentences When the Law Changes [The Atlantic / The Intercept, 10/14/15]: The Supreme Court is grappling
with the question of “retroactivity” as justices review life sentences for
juveniles.
The Death-Penalty Feud at the
Supreme Court [The
Atlantic, 10/13/15]: The justices weigh a new set of cases and their
implications for the Eighth Amendment and lethal injection.
Politicians Still Say Longer Prison Sentences Prevent
Gun Violence — But Do They? [The
Marshall Project, 10/15/15]: What we know about “gun enhancements.”
Solid Majority Continue
to Support Death Penalty [Gallup,
10/15/15]: About six in 10 Americans favor the
use of the death penalty for a person convicted of murder, similar to 2014.
This continues a gradual decline in support for the procedure since reaching
its all-time high point of 80% in 1994.
Argument analysis: Moral responsibility for death sentences [SCOTUS blog, 10/13/15]: In the nearly four decades since the Supreme Court
reinstated the death penalty as constitutional, the Justices and lower courts
have created an unusually complex, interwoven set of legal processes for
capital cases. One result of that is that it sometimes is very difficult
to pinpoint where, in the system, lies the moral responsibility for
sending someone to death row. It became quite clear on Tuesday,
though, that the Court wants that responsibility to be with the
people who sit on juries.
The case is Hurst
v. Florida:
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:
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:
Calls to
defy Supreme Court ruling on marriage are futile
[Chemerinsky Op-Ed in OC Register / SCOTUS blog, 10/15/15]: Astoundingly, a group of
conservative professors has urged government officials to defy the Supreme
Court’s decision declaring unconstitutional state laws that prohibit same-sex
marriage.
Black Sisters Endured Relentless
Racist Bullying [Slate,
10/15/15]: When they complained, the school called their tormenters' parents.
For the Love of Batgirl: California Passes
Much-Needed Fair Pay Law [Justia, 10/13/15]: Professor Grossman describes California’s recently
passed Fair Pay Act, which promises to help alleviate the equal pay gap where
the federal government has fallen short. Grossman explains the key findings by
the California legislature and the new law changes the landscape for female
workers in that state.
Why the Victims of Bill Cosby Are My Heroes [Justia, 10/15/15]:
Professor Hamilton praises the women who are stepping forward publicly to
accuse Bill Cosby of rape and sexual assault. Hamilton points out that despite
the presence of restrictive statutes of limitations in most states, many
survivors are stepping forward to seek justice and raising awareness.
5th Circuit Finds School District Not
Deliberately Indifferent to Student-on-Student Racial Harassment [EdLawProfs Blog,10/13/15]: The 5th
Circuit denied an appeal today of three African-American students who were
subjected to student-on-student racial harassment at school, finding that
the plaintiffs failed to raise a genuine dispute that the district was
deliberately indifferent to the students' claims.
Teacher Rafe Esquith's
misconduct investigation is a high-profile test for LAUSD panel [LA Times / Wash Post, 10/15/15]: When a colleague complained that Rafe
Esquith, the most celebrated teacher in Los Angeles, had made a joke about
nudity to his fifth-grade students, the district called into action a newly
formed squad of investigators to get to the bottom of it.
Teacher Evaluation Litigation Roundup [EdLawProfs Blog, 10/14/15]: For those who missed it, Edweek
published a chart and a synopsis
of all the current litigation challenging states' teacher evaluation systems.
Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Tennessee, and Texas
all have ongoing cases. Most of those states actually have more than one
case proceeding.
Here the chart/synopsis is:
International Law, Citizenship and Immigration [TOPIC 40-42]
ACLU
Report Finds 'Epidemic' Civil Rights Abuses by U.S. Border Patrol [CNS,
10/15/15]: Civil
rights abuses by U.S. Border Patrol agents in southern Arizona have reached
"epidemic levels," according to a report by two law professors who
examined some of the agency's tightly held records.
Iran council gives final
approval to nuclear deal [Jurist,
10/15/15]: A group of top Iranian jurists and
theologians approved the nuclear deal with world powers on Wednesday, marking
the completion of the last step before implementation of the deal may begin.
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