Posts for July 24, 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.

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:

List of Supreme Court cases thus far for 2016 term [USSC, 7/22/17]:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/grantednotedlist/17grantednotedlist

The 7^th Amendment and Louisiana [Gerard Magliocca in Concurring Opinions, 7/24/17]: The Seventh Amendment is among the few that the Supreme Court has not extended to the states….

https://concurringopinions.com/archives/2017/07/the-seventh-amendment-and-louisiana.html

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]

What Watergate and Whitewater tell us about Trump's drip, drip, drip [CNN, 7/23/17]: Clandestine meetings. Special counsels. Congressional probes. Sound familiar? The constellation of headline-driving drama in today's news recalls the machinations that engulfed Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton for years of their respective tenures. Those episodes offer insight to understanding the still fresh events unfolding around the Trump administration.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/22/politics/watergate-nixon-whitewater-clinton-trump-russians/index.html

Will the Trump Administration Receive Another Legal Blow When The Court Decides on the Travel Ban's Constitutionality? [Empirical SCOTUS blog, 7/22/17]: The Supreme Court already agreed to hear many significant cases in the fall 2017 term.  Among these is one of the most important tests of executive power the Court has ever heard. This case, consolidated as Trump. v. International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), involves the administration’s travel ban – specifically Executive Order No. 13780 – Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States.

https://empiricalscotus.com/2017/07/23/trump-travel-ban/

President Trump, Impeachment, and the "Higher Law": Parts I & II [Jurist, 7/23/18]:  What is to be done when positive law (which now includes US Constitutional law) is at variance with true law? The Romans had proposed a remedy. They incorporated into their statutes a contingency clause that man-made law could never abrogate.

http://www.jurist.org/forum/2017/07/Beres-president-trump-impeachment1.php

http://www.jurist.org/forum/2017/07/Beres-president-trump-impeachment2.php

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:

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Gerrymandering Case May Be Most Important Decision SCOTUS Faces [Juff Post, 7/22/17]: The upcoming case could dramatically reshape how electoral districts are drawn. She is referring to referring to Gill v. Whitford, a case in which plaintiffs are challenging Wisconsin’s 2011 map for the state assembly as unconstitutional.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ruth-bader-ginsburg-gerrymandering_us_59736a9de4b00e4363dfd3c8

Keep up-to-date on the Gill case:

http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/gill-v-whitford/

Read the take from the “Campaign Legal Center” at:

http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/case/gill-v-whitford

GOP despairs at inability to deliver [Politico, 7/23/17]: Ahead of this week's crucial Senate vote on health care, White House aides are already considering how to distance President Donald Trump from Congress and how to go after the Republicans who vote no — an idea the president seems fond of, according to people who have spoken to him. Several people said he plans to keep up the fight, no matter how this week's vote goes.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/23/republicans-trump-despair-deliver-240868

Legislation and the Legislative Process (TOPIC 20)

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

The Forgotten Side of Police Violence [Justia, 7/24/17]: Professor Margulies comments on an aspect of police violence that gets relatively less attention: violence against the police. Margulies argues that the solution to this infrequent but significant problem is to change what society asks police to do.

https://verdict.justia.com/2017/07/24/forgotten-side-police-violence

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:

Supreme Court ruling leads to offensive trademark requests [Reuters, 7/23/17]: A small group of companies and individuals are looking to register racially charged words and symbols for their products, including the N-word and a swastika, based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision on trademarks last month.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-slur-idUSKBN1A80L6

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:

Texas Senate Passes Bathroom Bill Despite Business Opposition [CNS, 7/24/17]: After a 10-hour hearing and despite opposition from powerful state business groups, a Texas Senate committee Friday passed the latest version of its anti-transgender bathroom bill.

http://www.courthousenews.com/texas-house-passes-bathroom-bill-despite-business-opposition/