Posts for June 9, 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 (5th ed.) student textbook.
Chimps are not people, cannot
be freed from custody: New York court [Reuters / AP, 6/8/17]: Chimpanzees do not
deserve the same rights as people, a New York state appeals court unanimously
concluded on Thursday, as it refused to order the release of two of the animals
to a primate sanctuary.
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:
Justice Stephen Breyer: Adding cameras to Supreme Court a
'risk' [Washington Examiner, 6/8/17]: Supreme
Court Justice Stephen Breyer said Thursday he is skeptical of adding cameras to
the high court, saying the technology would change the nature of oral
arguments. "Why not cameras in the courtroom? It's a risk," Breyer
said at the American Constitution Society's national convention in Washington.
"There's no going back."
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]
James Comey's Remarkable
Story About Donald Trump [New Yorker / Jurist, 6/8/17]: President Trump appears to be
guilty of obstruction of justice. That’s the only rational conclusion to be
reached if James Comey’s opening statement
for his planned testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, on
Thursday, is to be believed.
Comey’s devastating indictment of President Donald Trump [Politico,
6/8/17]: The fired FBI director’s aw-shucks demeanor did little to mask his
barbed accusations.
For Trump, the ‘Cloud’ Just Grew That Much Darker [NY
Times, 6/8/17]: In his anger at Mr. Comey for refusing to publicly disclose
that the president was not personally under investigation, legal experts said,
Mr. Trump may have actually made himself the target of an investigation.
Comey handed Mueller a fat case file on Trump [Politico,
6/8/17]: But legal experts say it’s not clear Mueller has a slam-dunk
obstruction of justice case against the president.
The Myth of Barry
Goldwater [Gerard Magliocca in “Concurring Opinions” blog, 6/8/17]: “I want to address an inaccurate story that keeps
getting thrown around in discussions about presidential impeachment or
resignation.”
Trump aides tell him to
keep Sessions as U.S. attorney general: sources [Reuters, 6/8/17]: Media
reports that Sessions offered to resign recently surfaced earlier this week.
They added to pressure on Trump as former FBI Director James Comey, who was
abruptly fired last month, prepared to testify in Congress on Thursday about
his interactions with the president.
What the
Judges Know About Trump [Linda Greenhouse in the NY Times, 6/8/17]: The Watts v. Indiana (1949) case lives
on for a single line in Justice Felix Frankfurter’s opinion for the court.
“There comes a point,” Frankfurter wrote, “where this court should not be
ignorant as judges of what we know as men.”
Mueller Enlists Top
Criminal Law Expert for Russia Probe [Nat. Law Journ., 6/8/17]: Deputy solicitor general Michael Dreeben, who has argued
more than 100 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and oversees the Justice
Department's criminal appellate docket, will be assisting Mueller on a
part-time basis, according to sources familiar with the arrangement.
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:
Legislation and the Legislative
Process (TOPIC 20)
House Repeals Dodd-Frank on Party-Line Vote [CNS, 6/9/17]: Taking
a hatchet to financial regulations Thursday, the House passed a rollback of the
Dodd-Frank Act and restructured the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,
Obama-era reforms enacted after the 2008 financial crisis.
Advocates of 3-year teacher tenure face big decision [EdSource,
6/8/17]: Backers of a bill that would lengthen the probationary period for
teachers weigh whether to try to strengthen the watered down version the
Assembly passed.
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
A Georgia sheriff
ordered pat-down searches for every student at a public high school—Now they’re
suing [NY Daily News, 6/7/17]: Students at Worth County High School in
Sylvester, Ga., have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against their country
sheriff after he ordered what the complaint describes as a schoolwide drug
sweep involving pat-down searches of hundreds of teenagers.
David Grann uncovers
conspiracy behind 1920s murders of members of oil-rich Osage Nation [ABA Journ.,
6/7/17]: Although the Osage Nation had been
forced from their ancestral lands by the U.S. government, through shrewd and
careful bargaining, they retained the mineral rights to one of the richest oil
fields in the world: Osage County, Oklahoma.
Man in jail for 10
years awaiting murder trial wants court to toss the charge [ABA Journ.,
6/6/17]: An Alabama man who has been held
without bail for 10 years on a murder charge is asking a judge to toss the case
against him for violation of his right to a speedy trial.
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:
Orthodox ritual of
swinging and slaying chickens can continue on city streets, appeals court rules
[NY Daily
News, 6/8/17]: An ultra-Orthodox ritual
involving the twirling and slaughtering of tens of thousands of chickens can
continue on public streets despite the ruffled feathers of animal rights
advocates and Brooklyn residents, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.
Read the 3-2 case ruling in Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos v. New York City Police Dep't at:
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:
International Law, Citizenship
and Immigration [TOPIC 40-42]
Can the
Justices decide the Trump immigration case swiftly? A lesson from 1981 [Constitution
Daily, 6/8/17]: Lyle Denniston, the
National Constitution Center’s Supreme Court correspondent, recalls a 1981 case
that sped through the court in 21 days. This post is based on his own
files while covering that case, Dames v. Moore v. Regan, for the
Washington Star newspaper and on internal court documents now found in various
archives of the Justices’ papers.
Guantanamo detainee
files suit against psychologists who devised interrogation tactics [Jurist,
6/9/1Attorneys for Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah have filed a lawsuit
against the two psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, who developed
the harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA, including waterboarding and
sleep deprivation. The UK human rights group Reprieve announced the case on
Wednesday.
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