Saturday, November 12, 2016

Posts for November 12, 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:

Anatomy Of A Rumor: On Justice Kennedy's 'Retirement' Next Year [Above the Law blog, 11/11/16]: Back in September, I heard an intriguing Supreme Court rumor: Justice Anthony M. Kennedy will announce his retirement from the Court next year. 

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:

NFIB v. Sebelius [The always-provocative Gerard Magliocca in Concurring Opinions, 11/10/16]: One result of the election is that the Chief Justice’s opinion upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act takes on a different light. 

The American Presidency [TOPIC 15]

Watchdogs question Trump’s plans to keep his empire in the family [Politico, 11/11/16]: Never before has a billionaire with so many diverse business entanglements directly affected by White House policy taken the presidency, and the potential conflicts of interest facing Donald Trump are so unprecedented that U.S. ethics laws weren’t even written to account for them. However, Trump isn’t legally bound to divest himself from his businesses. It’s against the law to use public office for personal financial gain, but the president and vice president are exempt from the web of conflict-of-interest laws and regulations requiring executive-branch officials to recuse themselves on certain issues and divest from certain holdings — an exemption based on the idea that the president deals with so many policies that conflicts are bound to arise. And while the executive branch is guided by the Office of Government Ethics, Trump will appoint its director.

Supreme Court Never Imagined a Litigant Like President Trump [Bloomberg View, 11/11/16]: Only two presidents have had to deal with private lawsuits while in office. One was John Kennedy, who settled a suit involving a car crash that happened during his campaign. The other was Bill Clinton, sued by Paula Jones for making sexual advances toward her when he was governor of Arkansas. President-elect Donald Trump is involved in 75 pending lawsuits. That’s a problem -- potentially a serious one.

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:

How it happened [The Economist, 11/12/16]: Donald Trump built an unlikely winning coalition. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and lost the election. Here is as good a summary as you will get….

What President Trump will mean to California’s beleaguered GOP [East Bay Times, 11/11/16]: Republicans struggling to save their party in ultra-blue California are suddenly weighing what was unthinkable just weeks ago: Could the unforeseen Republican tsunami that swept Donald Trump into the White House and captured both houses of Congress deliver a life raft to the GOP in the Golden State?

Trump’s victory another example of how Electoral College wins are bigger than popular vote ones [Pew Research Center / Vox, 11/9/16]: For the fifth time in U.S. history, and the second time this century, a presidential candidate has won the White House while (apparently) losing the popular vote.

NYT: Hillary Clinton likely won 2 million more popular votes than Donald Trump [History news Network, 11/11/16]: Hillary Clinton didn’t just win the popular vote. She won it by a substantial margin. By the time all the ballots are counted, she seems likely to be ahead by more than 2 million votes and more than 1.5 percentage points, according to my Times colleague Nate Cohn. She will have won by a wider percentage margin than not only Al Gore in 2000, but also Richard Nixon in 1968 and   John F. Kennedy in 1960. These comparisons — and I know they’re painful for many people to hear — highlight a dilemma for the suddenly bereft Democratic Party.

A road map Hillary Clinton did not follow to the White House [Sac Bee, 11/11/16]: On the night before Thanksgiving in 2014, an email from huma@clintonemail.com went to Hillary Clinton’s brain trust, Cheryl Mills, Robbie Mook and John Podesta. The subject line read “Ace Smith.”

The toughest election in recent memory is over, but the anger and division remain [OC Register / KQED, 11/11/16]: The war for the White House is over. News flash: Donald Trump won, Hillary Clinton lost. Now, a whole lot of people who cast hearts and ballots for one side or the other are left to deal with the societal and emotional hangover born of 18 months of the most bitterly divisive presidential campaign in modern memory. 

Legislation and the Legislative Process (TOPIC 20)

GOP feuds over how to kill Obamacare [Politico, 11/11/16]: Some want a quick end, while others fear throwing 20 million people off their coverage virtually overnight.

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

Voters in several states approve protections for crime victims [Jurist 11/12/16]: Voters in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota approved Marsy's Law on Tuesday, adding rights for crime victims to their state constitutions.

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:

Trump judge sided with Easton school district in 'boobies' case [Allentown (PA.) Morning Call, 11/11/16]: The Pennsylvania federal appeals court judge who would have curtailed the rights of two Easton Area Middle School students to raise awareness of breast cancer appeared on President Donald Trump’s list of possible U.S. Supreme Court nominees.

A sailor's words put him in the brig. Was he making threats or blowing off steam? [McClatchy DC, 11/11/16]: Alexey N. Gebert built little bombs in Florida and London as a teenager.

Mountain View High history teacher on leave for comparing Trump to Hitler [SJ Merc, 11/11/16]: A history teacher at Mountain View High School has been placed on paid leave after drawing parallels between Republican President-elect Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler in his lesson plan.

Online news poses threat to democracy with fake and sensational stories [FAC, 11/8/16]: With ads for print media down, the news media is poised to cut their reporting staffs, a move that Jim Rutenberg, of the NY Times, finds ill-timed given the flood of fake news in online venues. 

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:




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