Posts for September 21, 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.
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:
'Preposterous'
Stonewalling By Judicial Nominees Makes a Mockery of Confirmation Hearings [“ACS Blog,” 9/20/17]: Confirmation hearings for top judicial posts – the
primary mechanism by which the Senate exercises its constitutional
responsibility to "advise and consent" on the appointment of judges –
have become laugh-or-cry charades in which nominees endlessly repeat
boilerplate explanations for why they can't answer even the most basic
questions about their judicial philosophies.
Can companies block employees' class-action lawsuits? [“On Democracy” blog in The Economist, 9/20/17]: The
Supreme Court will hear the labour dispute on October 2nd, the first day of the
justices' new term.
The consolidated cases are Epic
Systems v Lewis, Ernst
& Young v Morris and N.L.R.B. v Murphy Oil.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Remarks at Georgetown Law [C-SPAN, 9/20/17]: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg spoke to first year law students at Georgetown Law Center on a variety
of legal topics.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?434298-1/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-addresses-georgetown-law-students
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:
San Francisco, Oakland sue major oil companies over
rising seas [SF Chron, 9/20/17]: The suits, filed separately Tuesday
in Superior Court in San Francisco and Alameda County, claim that a slate of
oil, gas and coal producers not only caused the heat-trapping gases that drove
sea-level rise but knowingly did so, a challenge akin to litigation against big
tobacco companies in the 1990s.
California Sues to Keep Border Wall Off Environmental Fast Track
[CNS, 9/20/17]: California Attorney General Xavier Becerra – standing steps
from the fence along the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego – said Wednesday he
and the California Coastal Commission have sued the federal
government for circumventing state and federal environmental laws in order to
speed up construction of the border wall.
The
American Presidency [TOPIC 15]
The Constitution Is Passing the Trump Stress Test [Bloomberg, 9/20/17]: Congress and the courts are
doing their jobs so far to pull back the president from his worst threats.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-09-20/the-constitution-is-passing-the-trump-stress-test
The Textual Argument That the President Does Not Hold
an 'Office Under the United States' [“The
Narrowest Grounds” blog, 9/21/17]: “My intention here has not been to provide
anything like a conclusive argument that Presidents are (at least as a textual
matter) not officers under the United States. My intention, rather, has
only been to show that there is a strong argument that they are not that needs
to be taken far more seriously than it has been, not just because Hamilton
prepared a report that supports the view or because Tillman's critics have made
spurious claims about the historical record or Tillman himself, but because the
text of the Constitution tends to support it.”
Trump’s sloppy handling of his Russia problem is coming
back to bite him [Wash Post, 9/20/17]: Special counsel Robert Mueller
has requested extensive records from the White House for his Russia
investigation, The Post's Carol D. Leonnig and Rosalind S. Helderman are
reporting. The request includes 13 categories that are seen as key to the
probe. And for many of those 13, President Trump and the White House have
nobody to blame but themselves.
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 Bernie Sanders is cultivating California for 2020
[Sac Bee, 9/20/17]: Bernie Sanders can’t get enough of California. Sanders, the
independent senator from Vermont, barnstormed the Golden State ahead of the
June 2016 primary like no presidential candidate in recent memory.
Unsweet Home Alabama
[Sabato’s Crystal Ball, 9/21/17]: The state’s
brutal primary runoff battle for the GOP Senate nomination enters its final
days/
New Jersey Democrats Growing
Certainty at the Ballot Box [Sabato’s Crystal Ball, 9/21/17]: But not in the courtroom.
The 2016 Election: An
Earthquake or a Hurricane?
[Sabato’s Crystal Ball, 9/21/17]: Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election
victory has been compared to an
earthquake, a seismic event that toppled fledging dynasties in both
major parties, ruptured political alliances, damaged the reputation of pundits,
and left millions in shock or depressed. To this day, its after-effects, like
tsunamis or landslides that can follow an earthquake, continue to affect domestic
politics, not to mention America’s relations with allies and adversaries.
Legislation and the Legislative
Process (TOPIC 20)
Latest GOP Health Care Plan Includes
Steep Cuts to States [CNS, 9/20/17]: The GOP’s last-ditch effort to
repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law could cut
federal funding to states by $215 billion through 2026, and by $4 trillion over
20 years, according to a new study.
Share HR 1628 with your students:
What a difference three days makes: How voters shook up
California’s Legislature [CalMatters, 9/20/17]: Something was
different this year. As lawmakers in Sacramento approached the last night of
their session—the final opportunity to pass or kill bills for the year—they had
had three days to figure out how to vote.
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
Who got killed in California in 2016, and why [SF
Chron, 9/20/17]: A recently released report on homicides by the California
Department of Justice found that killings around the state jumped 3.7 percent
from 2015 to 2016, but were down 14.5 percent from a decade ago. It also
offered a look at the nature of killings last year.
Massachusetts top court rules field sobriety tests not
definitive for marijuana impairment T[Jurist,
9/20/17]: he Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday that evidence
of a field sobriety test is not conclusive evidence of driving under the
influence of marijuana. The court found that although there is clear scientific
evidence that the field sobriety test performance can be used to measure blood
alcohol content of at least 0.08 percent, no scientific evidence exists showing
the correlation of performance on the sobriety tests and marijuana
intoxication.
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:
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:
Yes, the Political
and Economic Issue of Our Time Really Is Inequality [Justia, 9/21/17]:
Professor Buchanan argues that economic inequality is the political and
economic issue of our time, and now is the perfect opportunity for Democrats to
push toward a solution. Buchanan decries the claim that the correct path is to
triangulate between the policies of the left and the right and explains why
now, more than ever, progressive policies are the best response.
Masterpiece Cakeshop and the Effort To Rewrite Smith and its Progeny [“Take Care” bog, 9/21/17]:
The doctrinal importance of the
difference between laws targeting religion and laws incidentally burdening
religion may seem obvious to many legal observers. After all, it has been 27
years since the Court famously distinguished between laws imposing targeted
burdens and incidental burdens in Employment Division v. Smith, explicitly mentioning civil rights laws as an
example falling into the latter, non-suspect category.
EEOC Sues Texas Doctor for
Religious Discrimination [CNS, 9/21/17]: A Dallas-area medical
practice fired four employees for refusing to attend morning Bible discussions
or after judging their personal lives, the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission said Wednesday in a federal lawsuit.
International Law, Citizenship
and Immigration [TOPIC 40-42]
Protests, tensions intensify in Spain as date for
secession vote approaches in Catalonia region [Jurist, 9/21/17]: Numerous raids on government and corporate
headquarters in the Catalonia region of Spain, which includes the city of
Barcelona and has a population around 7.5 million, have led to widespread
protesting and increasing tension between police and civilians.
UN opens treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons for signature
[Jurist, 9/20/17]: The UN opened a treaty
for signature on Wednesday prohibiting a wide range of nuclear weapon-related
actions. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted during a
UN conference in July by a vote of 122 to 1.
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