Posts for February
11, 2016
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:
12th Cir. on Horizon?
Breaking Up 9th Cir. Hard to Do [Bloomberg BNA, 2/10/16]: Breaking up the Ninth Circuit as proposed by Arizona
politicians wouldn't be as simple as the division of the Fifth Circuit and the
resulting creation of the Eleventh were in 1981, law professors and former
Ninth Circuit clerks told Bloomberg BNA.
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:
The American Presidency [TOPIC 15]
Obama v. Supreme Court [Politico, 2/10/16]: The court's stay of a
climate-change rule leaves the president's environmental legacy in limbo until
after he leaves office.
Have justices opened gates for agency challenges? [Greenwire, 2/10/16]: Many lawyers dismissed challengers' novel
attempt to ask the Supreme Court to step in and block the Obama
administration's climate change rule for power plants. It had never been done
before, they argued. In its bid to urge the justices to reject the request,
U.S. EPA told the high court such a move would be "extraordinary and
unprecedented." But yesterday, the court granted the request, shocking
EPA's friends and foes alike.
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:
Dems: Bernie’s
Blowout [Sabato’s Crystal Ball, 2/11/16]: Will it help him
make inroads with nonwhite voters?
Reps: Trump Soars, Rubio Falters [Sabato’s Crystal Ball, 2/11/16]: Kasich has a strong night, but where does he go from here?
Bernie-Mania's Barrier: Democratic Delegate Math
[Cook Politics Report, 2/10/16]: In the wake of
new Iowa and New Hampshire polls showing Bernie Sanders gaining, some say it's
time for Hillary Clinton to hit the panic button. "Clinton should
ABSOLUTELY be nervous about the state of the race with less than three weeks
before voters in Iowa head to the caucuses," the Washington Post's Fix
blog blared last week. There are just two obstacles in this
theory's way: demographics and delegate arithmetic.
Glossary of National
Convention Delegate Allocation [Sabato’s Crystal Ball, 2/11/16]: Sometimes a candidate can clinch a nomination by a
series of early victories, quickly choking off the support of challengers also
vying for the nomination. However, if a candidate cannot do this and the hopes
have faded on a quick and easy, momentum-based sprint to the nomination, the
goalposts move and the focus shifts from wins and losses to the delegate count.
New test on racial issue
in redistricting [SCOTUS blog, 2/10/16]: Forecasting
“election chaos” if the Supreme Court does not act promptly, state officials in
North Carolina on Tuesday sought a delay of a lower-court ruling that they said may
force the rescheduling of the primary election in that state, now set for March
15.
Republicans Will Not Seriously Try to Sell Marco Rubio as
a Moderate, Will They? [Justia, 2/11/16]: In
this first of a series of columns evaluating presidential candidates’ claims of
being moderate, George Washington law professor and economist Neil H. Buchanan
argues that Marco Rubio is extremely conservative on both social and economic
issues.
Kasich Big Draw in
S.C. as Primary Approaches [CNS, 2/10/16]: The
battle for the hearts and minds of Republican presidential primary voters got
underway in earnest in South Carolina on Wednesday with Ohio Gov. John Kasich
accentuating the positive during a town hall in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.
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
Pa. courts scramble to
catch up to juvenile-lifers decision [Philly Inquirer, 2/11/16]: Recently, Earl Rice Jr., an inmate at Graterford
Prison, got unexpected news from a relative: A judge had unceremoniously
changed his sentence from life without parole to life with parole.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160211_Pa__courts_scramble_to_catch_up_to_juvenile-lifers_decision.html
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160211_Pa__courts_scramble_to_catch_up_to_juvenile-lifers_decision.html
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:
First Five from the Newseum [Newseum, 2/11/16]: The latest news.
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:
Reconciling State
Sovereign Immunity with the Fourteenth Amendment [Harvard Law Review,
2/10/16]: The United States was and is an
experiment with a previously unknown form of government: not a single
sovereign, not a loose coalition of independent states, but both together
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