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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