Posts for May 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 (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:

This Election Inspired a John Grisham Novel [Mother Jones, 5/9/16]: Now It Just Got Even Weirder; Twelve years after coal baron Don Blankenship bought a seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court, the tables have turned.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/west-virginia-supreme-court-blankenship-benjamin

White House Sends High Court Pick’s Questionnaire to Senate [AP, 5/10/16]: Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland detailed his most significant cases in thousands of pages of documents submitted to Congress Tuesday, including his role as a federal prosecutor in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing case and the prosecution of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GARLAND_QUESTIONNAIRE

The questionnaire can be accessed online:

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Senate%20Judiciary%20Committee%20Questionnaire%205%209%202016.pdf

Fit to be tied: Why the Supreme Court is slowing down [The Economist, 5/9/16]: With five votes, the late Justice William Brennan liked to tell his clerks, “you can do anything around here”. Justice Brennan’s rule still applies after the death in February of Antonin Scalia. But with only eight justices remaining, the magic number of five is now harder to come by. 

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2016/05/fit-be-tied

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:

Supervisors OK ballot measure to lower San Francisco voting age to 16 [SF Chron, 5/10/16]: A charter amendment to lower the voting age to 16 that will appear on the November ballot would put San Francisco at the forefront of expanding voting rights at a time when some other governments around the country have implemented increasingly restrictive voting laws.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Supervisors-OK-ballot-measure-to-lower-SF-voting-7458077.php?t=9321d9d37d00af33be&cmpid=twitter-premium

With Trump And SCOTUS, Do Qualifications Even Matter? [Huff Post, 5/10/16]: It's a question Republican senators found extremely hard to answer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-supreme-court-vacancy_us_57325e7be4b096e9f0931c72

Trump Finds a Way to Be Just a Bit More Unhinged than the Republican Establishment Is About the Federal Debt [Justia / Politico, 5/11/16]: Professor uchanan explains how Donald Trump’s recent comments about the federal debt reveal that he is even more irresponsible—though only slightly—than the Republican establishment on this issue. Buchanan describes the problems with repudiating the debt as Trump suggests the government do. Politico weighs in as well.

https://verdict.justia.com/2016/05/11/trump-finds-way-just-bit-unhinged-republican-establishment-federal-debt

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/trump-debt-bankruptcy-wall-street-222976

Sanders says he learned not to try to compromise with Republicans [SF Chron, 5/10/16]: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says he learned from the mistakes President Obama made in his first term — they taught him that if he wins the White House, he won’t be able to compromise with Republicans in Congress.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Sanders-says-he-learned-not-to-try-to-compromise-7457857.php?t=523ac906ac00af33be&cmpid=twitter-premium

Senate Races Could Shape the Future of the First Amendment — Campaign Spending Wars in Play [Concurring Opinions, 5/11/16]: While the war of Citizens United and campaign financing rages on, Democrat and Republican groups are busy tapping into their financial war chests to contest key Senate races, which could determine the makeup of the Senate and the confirmation process as it applies to nominees to the Supreme Court. 

http://concurringopinions.com/archives/2016/05/fan-108-first-amendment-news-senate-races-could-shape-the-future-of-the-first-amendment-campaign-spending-wars-in-play.html

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:

Facebook accused of censoring conservative perspectives [FAN, 5/10/16]: Former Facebook workers say that the company suppressed news stories that would have appealed to conservative readers, excluding them from the network’s trending news section. 

https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/2016/05/facebook-accused-censoring-conservative-perspectives/

Secrecy Reigns in U.S. Courts [FAC, 5/10/16]: A Texas judge claims that secrecy is shrouding U.S. courts beginning with the establishment in 1978 of our first secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court. 

https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/2016/05/secrecy-reigns-u-s-courts/

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: