Posts for March 20, 2017

These are the posts that are accumulated in our weekly newsletter which goes out throughout the school year. The posts are organized by the major units in our Constitutional Law (5^th ed.) student textbook.

A Few Words About That Ten-Million-Dollar Serial Comma [The New Yorker, 3/17/17]: Nothing, but nothing—profanity, transgender pronouns, apostrophe abuse—excites the passion of grammar geeks more than the serial, or Oxford, comma. People love it or hate it, and they are equally ferocious on both sides of the debate.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-few-words-about-that-ten-million-dollar-serial-comma

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:

The Roles of Judges in Democracies: A Realistic View [Brian Leiter, 3/18/17]: Realism about democracy demands that we recognize that electoral outcomes are largely, though not entirely, unrelated to concrete policy choices by elected representatives or to the policy preferences of voters, who typically follow their party based on “tribal” loyalties. 

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2935415

Gorsuch hearings

Gorsuch Confirmation Hearing, Day 1 [C-SPAN / Reuters, 3/20/17]: Watch the hearings. It is a fascinating discussion about the meaning of the U.S. constitution.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?424146-1/opening-day-supreme-court-nominee-neil-gorsuch-confirmation-hearing&live

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-gorsuch-idUSKBN16Q0BP

Gorsuch: Picked for Court by Federalist Society? [Jost on Justice blog, 3/20/17]: As a candidate, Trump promised that his judicial nominees would "all [be] picked by the Federalist Society." 

http://jostonjustice.blogspot.com/2017/03/gorsuch-picked-for-court-by-federalist.html

Trump's Supreme Court nominee to face senators in marathon hearing [Reuters / CNN / The Atlantic / NPR, 3/20/17]: Donald Trump's U.S. Supreme Court nominee will face tough scrutiny at a Senate confirmation hearing starting on Monday, with Democrats seeking to make the case that Neil Gorsuch is a pro-business, social conservative insufficiently independent of the Republican president.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-gorsuch-idUSKBN16Q0BP

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/20/politics/neil-gorsuch-abortion-religious-liberty-environment-gun-control/

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/gorsuchs-nuanced-record-on-business/520101/

http://www.npr.org/2017/03/20/520788181/senate-panel-to-open-hearings-for-supreme-court-nominee-neil-gorsuch

What Neil Gorsuch Can Learn From His Grandfather [Brennan Center for Justice, 3/19/17]: A few months after the Denver law firm of Gorsuch & Kirgis opened its doors in July 1945 its receptionist became sick enough to be hospitalized. 

https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/what-neil-gorsuch-can-learn-his-grandfather

Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch an 'extremist,' Feinstein's office says [SF Chron, 3/19/17]: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is labeling him an extremist on such issues as worker protections and reproductive rights.

http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Feinstein-labels-Supreme-Court-nominee-Gorsuch-an-11013027.php

Justices to hear property rights dispute over family's land [AP, 3/19/17]: The Murr family's path to the Supreme Court began on the scenic banks of Wisconsin's St. Croix River, when a group of siblings tried to sell one of two waterfront plots.

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

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:

The American Presidency [TOPIC 15]

The Courts and President Trump's Words [Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker, 3/17/17]: Judges’ reliance reliance on statements by Trump and his supporters leads to a peculiar and unsettling possibility: that an identical order would be upheld if Barack Obama had issued it, but that this one was invalidated because Trump was the author.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-courts-and-president-trumps-words

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:

Legislation and the Legislative Process (TOPIC 20)

Can Chuck Schumer Check Donald Trump? [New Yorker, 3/20/17]: After suggesting that he might be able to work with the President, the Senate Minority Leader is taking a harder line.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/can-chuck-schumer-check-donald-trump

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

Border searches can pry into personal technology [SF Chron, 3/19/17]: In a small community center tucked away at the back of a business park in Hayward, dozens of men and women sat fidgeting with their phones. As lawyers explained that the devices they held and everything stored on them could be searched at a U.S. border crossing, the men and women exchanged glances.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Border-searches-can-pry-into-personal-technology-11013205.php?t=a4ba38b206&cmpid=twitter-premium

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:

Does the First Amendment Protect Trump's Travel Ban? [Slate, 3/20/17]: A 9th Circuit judge just gave the Supreme Court's conservatives an excuse to uphold the president's bigoted executive order.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/03/the_9th_circuit_s_alex_kozinski_defends_trump_s_travel_ban_on_first_amendment.html

Why the Establishment Clause Has Emerged as the Chief Stumbling Block for Trump's Muslim Ban [Dorf on the Law blog, 3/17/17]: Federal district courts in Hawai'i and Maryland both relied on the Establishment Clause as the basis for their invalidation of Ban 2.0 in the last few days. So did the federal district court in Virginia in enjoining Ban 1.0 in February. Why the Establishment Clause rather than the other claims?

http://www.dorfonlaw.org/2017/03/why-establishment-clause-has-emerged-as.html

School Says Texas A.G. Is Grandstanding on Muslims [CNS, 3/19/17]: A suburban Dallas school district slammed Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday, calling his warning about the legality of a high school prayer room used by Muslims a “publicity stunt” meant to “politicize a nonissue.”

http://www.courthousenews.com/school-says-texas-g-grandstanding-muslims/

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:

International Law, Citizenship and Immigration [TOPIC 40-42]

Fearing immigration crackdown, some go into hiding while churches prepare sanctuaries [KPCC, 3/29/17]: President Donald Trump's aggressive enforcement of immigration laws has changed the lives of thousands of people in Southern California who, fearing deportation, have slipped deeper into the shadows and now step outside only when they have little choice. 

http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/03/20/69948/fearing-immigration-crackdown-some-go-into-hiding/

In a first, former CIA captive appeals Guantanamo trial to Supreme Court [Miami Herald, 3/18/17]: Lawyers for the man accused of orchestrating the USS Cole bombing are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the military tribunal here using accounts of the captive’s CIA torture drawn from declassified documents and an interrogator’s recent memoirs.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article139424468.html