...Griswold v. Connecticut: The Right to Privacy, Equal Protection, and Legalizing Sodomy In 1965 the landmark case Griswold v. Connecticut the Supreme Court recognized penumbra emanations regarding the right to privacy protected from governmental intrusion. Plaintiffs Estelle Griswold, the Executive Director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, and C. Lee Buxton, a licensed physician serving as the Medical Director for the League in New Haven, were found guilty and charged as accessories to Connecticut’s General Statutes §§ 53-52 and 54-196 for providing advice and prescribing a contraceptive device for a heterosexual married couple. The statutes at issue stated that: (1) Persons preventing conception using drugs, medicines,...
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...to current events including the 2016 presidential election and the newly appointed Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Court’s role of reproductive rights has been examined closely. Federal and state legislature have honed in on women’s right to abortion through compelling state interests to protect women’s health. Additionally, access of contraceptives and the role of health care are issues that the Court has decided on. Over the years, the Court’s opinions on these issues have evolved even though reproductive rights are still very controversial. To better understand...
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...A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM?: OBERGEFELL V. HODGES Kenji Yoshino The decision in Obergefell v. Hodges1 achieved canonical status even as Justice Kennedy read the result from the bench. A bare majority held that the Fourteenth Amendment required every state to perform and to recognize marriages between individuals of the same sex.2 The majority opinion ended with these ringing words about the plaintiffs: “Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”3 While Obergefell’s most immediate effect was to legalize same-sex marriage across the land, its long-term impact could extend far beyond this context. To see this point, consider how much more narrowly the opinion could have been written. It could have invoked the equal protection and due process guarantees without specifying a formal level of review, and then observed that none of the state justifications survived even a deferential form of scrutiny. The Court had adopted this strategy in prior gay rights cases.4 Instead, the Court issued a sweeping statement that could be compared to Loving v. Virginia,5 the 1967 case that invalidated bans on in––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law. I gratefully acknowledge receiving financial support from...
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................... 5 A Short History of Precedent ............................................................................... 7 The Consistency of Originalism and Precedent ............................................... 21 The Supermajoritarian Theory of Constitutional Originalism........................ 28 The Relative Benefits of Original Meaning and Precedent ............................. 29 Precedent Rules .................................................................................................. 34 Factors Relevant to Beneficial Precedent Rules .............................................. 41 The Contrast with Other Approaches to Precedent ......................................... 44 Applying the Approach to Previous Supreme Court Overruling Decisions ... 48 THE NORMATIVE THEORY OF PRECEDENT .................................................................. 27 CONCLUSION...
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...executive, and judicial branches; they’re independent branches of the federal government Constitution ensures that each branch maintains a separate sphere of power to prevent any one of them from obtaining undue power and monopolizing government control Constitution also establishes a system of checks and balances Each branch’s powers keep the other branches from dominating the government Constitution does not explicitly allow courts to review legislative and executive actions to determine whether they are constitutional, but early common law established a process called judicial law Judicial law is the power of a court to review legislative and executive actions, such as a law or an official act of a government employee or agent, to determine whether they are constitutional Established in 1803 U.S. Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison Also allows courts to review constitutionality of lower courts’ decisions Supremacy clause, located in Article VI of Constitution, provides that the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the U.S. constitute the supreme law of the land...
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...Federalist Papers were among the "founding fathers" of the United States of America. This term is used to refer to the men whose actions were responsible for creating the United States of America and the United States Constitution. View this introductory presentation on the authors of The Federalist Papers. Then, read the internet resources on The Federalist Papers. Internet Resources KAPLAN LIBRARY The "KU Online Library" link is on the left Navigation area of your course Home Page once you log in. You will be able to locate the articles below by placing the title of the article into the search engine. For any Supreme Court cases or other legal cases, once you go into the Kaplan Library, on the right side of the page you will see “databases.” Once in “databases” scroll down to “Westlaw Campus Research” and there you will be able to access the full text of court opinions, statutes, and regulations from state and federal governments. The Federalist Papers Jay, J., Goldman, L., Hamilton, A., & Madison, J. (2008). The Federalist Papers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. LOCKE, John. (n.d.). Funk & Wagnall’s New World Encyclopedia, EBSCOhost. Bunce, R.R. (2009). Thomas Hobbes. New York: Continuum. These articles summarize the theories of these two great philosophers. As you read about these two men, think about the connections you see between their respective ideas and the ideas in The...
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... quality, and services for millions of Americans with health and behavioral health needs. Social workers practice as part of health caretailing the factors necessitating health care reform in the United States. Second, it analyzes whether a constitutionally protected right to make personal health care decisions exists under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments' Due Process Clauses. Finally, the article analyzes the susceptibility of government-sponsored health care-specifically proposals which include a public option-to due process challenges and makes suggestions to avoid any potential fundamental rights violations. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT] quirement to purchase health insurance. It also examines some recent Canadian constitutional law cases to anticipate possible future legal challenges to health care reform in the United States. INTRODUCTION The question of the reform of the American system of financing health care has, of course, recently been a central focus of debate in American politics. Because the author of this paper is something of a "political junkie" and keeping current on this issue seemed a desirable part of being a law professor at the current moment, I decided to investigate and examine what legal issues have been involved in the health care reform debate. To a fair degree, what I discovered was that the health care issue is primarily focused on politics, ethics, and economics, rather than on legal issues. But a variety of legal issues have surfaced in...
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...No. 15-1972 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Spring Term, 2015 ________________________________ GEORGE E. SCHAEFER, III, in his official capacity as the Clerk of Court for Norfolk Circuit Court and JANET M. RAINEY, in her official capacity as State Registrar of Vital Records, Petitioners, MICHÈLE MCQUIGG, Intervenor/Petitioner, v. TIMOTHY B. BOSTIC; TONY C. LONDON; CAROL SCHALL; and MARY TOWNLEY, Respondents. ________________________________ ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT ________________________________ BRIEF FOR THE RESPONDENTS ________________________________ Law Student Counsel for the Respondents QUESTION PRESENTED Whether Virginia’s Marriage Laws, which prohibit same-sex couples from marrying or entering a civil partnership in Virginia or in any other jurisdiction, violate the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment when: * Virginia’s constitution limits marriage to one man and one woman; * Virginia’s code prohibits same-sex marriages or civil unions; and * Virginia’s code refuses to recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions lawfully consummated in other jurisdictions. TABLE OF CONTENTS page QUESTION PRESENTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i TABLE OF CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...
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...Mulligan: Execs have most knowledge and will be better at at analyzing problems and implementing solutions * Friedman: Execs are not competent to solve moral problems – should be left to governemtn Director/Officer “Duty of Due Care Standard” in the Business Judgment Rule Statutory duty to act: 1. “In Good Faith” – NO SELF INTEREST 2. “With Care of an ordinarly prudent person” BE INFORMED 3. “In manner reasonably believed to be in best interest of corporation” Comparison to a Professional’s “Duty of Due Care”: 1. Duty of Care 2. Breach of duty of care by a reasonably prudent professional 3. breach causes damages that were foreseeable. 4. Negligence Theory: , Can negligence be criminal—US v Parks case Yes! If informed of an issue, should follow through and ensure action was taken (supermarket example) States’ Differing Public Policy on role of stakeholders in making a decision that is in the best interests of the company * Half of the states say the officers and directors can take into account stockholders and other stakeholders (employees, customers, supplies, communities). * Pennsylvania and Indiana allow officers to place the interests of stakeholders above stockholders Why most companies choose Delaware to incorporate Management friendly. Example: business judgement rule Drucker’s Aristotelian statement--aligning a company’s competencies with societal problem “Organizations have a responsibility to...
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...that is released will be done on a need to know basis only. As an employee, it is your responsibility to maintain the privacy of our clients and any information you may receive throughout the workweek. You will also have information about our daily operations. These also are not to be shared with anyone. Depending on your position with our company, you may receive confidential information regarding other employees that is not to be shared with others. It is of highest importance that privacy is maintained during all aspects of work. Privacy Rights & Privacy Protection The right to privacy in the workplace is not a guaranteed right in the Constitution. However, in the Supreme Court ruling on Griswold v. Connecticut, (381 U.S. 479 (2965).), the Court held that a Connecticut statute restricting a married couple’s use of birth control devices unconstitutionally infringed on the right to marital privacy. Therefore, the right to privacy became an inferred...
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...shared) • Layers of gov • Equal power • Distinct powers Powers of the federal government: delegated powers, implied powers (necessary and proper clause), and concurrent powers. • Delegated Powers: (expressed/enumerated powers) powers given to the federal government directly by the constitution. Some most important delegated powers are: the authority to tax, regulated interstate commerce, authority to declare war, and grants the president role of commander and chief of the military • Implied Powers: Powers not expressed in the constitution, but that can be inferred. “Necessary and proper clause” • Concurrent powers: powers shared by both levels of government. Ex: Taxes, roads, elections, commerce, establishing courts and a judicial system • Reserved powers: powers not assigned by the constitution to the national government but left to the states or the people. Guaranteed by the 10th amendment. Include “police power”-health and public welfare, intra-state commerce. Example of police powers: Gonzales vs Raich (2005) and California Medical Marijuana. The parts and relevance of the "Triad of Powers" • Interstate commerce clause • General welfare • 10th amendment – non-delegated powers go to the states Federalism between states (i.e. full faith and credit and privileges and immunities clause, original...
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...Equality and the Constitution 4 Class 1: Slavery and the Constitution 4 1. The Original Constitution 4 2. State v. Post 4 3. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) 4 4. Reconstruction 5 5. Post-Reconstruction Cases 6 Class 2: The Advent of American Constitutional Law: Brown 7 6. RACIAL EQUALITY 7 7. Brown I (1954) The segregation of children in public schools based solely on race violates the Equal Protection Clause. 7 2. Brown II 8 3. What was the constitutional harm in Brown? 8 4. THEORY 8 5. Subsequent School Desegregation 9 Class 3: Local Efforts to Desegregate: Parents Involved 11 6. Parents Involved 11 Class 4: Rational Basis Review: Cleburne, Romer, etc. 13 2. Tiers of Scrutiny 13 3. Beazer (1979) 13 4. Moreno (1973) 14 5. Cleburne (1985) 14 6. Romer (1996) 15 7. Nordlinger (1992) and Allegheny Pittsburgh (1989) 16 8. Lee Optical (1955) 17 Class 5: Racial Classifications and Heightened Scrutiny: Strauder, Korematsu, Loving 17 9. Heightened Scrutiny Analysis 17 10. Strauder (1880) 17 11. Korematsu (1944) 18 12. Loving (1967) 19 13. Theories Supporting Strict Scrutiny of Racial Classifications 20 14. Tiers of Scrutiny 20 15. Tiers of Scrutiny Table 21 Class 6: Facially Neutral Classifications: Washington v. Davis 21 16. Types of Discrimination (from Fall) 21 X. Disparate Impact 21 XI. Purposive Discrimination 22 ...
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...Rosillo Pasquale Siciliani Paul Lanois Gloria M. Gasso Kamel Ait El Hadj Yuanyuan Zheng Ana L. Marquez Pumthan Chaichantipyuth Wenzhen Dai Penn Law Summer 2006 I. Introduction and Historical Background A. What the course will cover? This is not an introductory course. You are all lawyers; I shall assume a good deal of professional expertise, and that many of you already have a body of knowledge about American law. The task: prepare you for the coming year, give you the basic grounding that you will need for the courses you are going to start taking in September. For this, you need two things: ♥ A great deal of basic factual information about how the courts and the legal system function, and about basic legal concepts (and legal vocabulary); ♥ But more importantly: background information about some of the critical ways in which the American legal system is unique, and differs from legal systems elsewhere in the world. This is hard: often you will find that your professors or fellow‐students will make assumptions or presuppose certain ways of doing things that aren’t explained in class. A large goal of this course is to explain those assumptions, and make them explicit. >> UNIQUENESS OF AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEMS Briefly, there are four aspects of the American legal system that set it apart: 1) Inherited common law, existing out ...
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...[Please do not circulate or cite without permission] Written Constitutions and Unwritten Constitutionalism Mark D. Walters Faculty of Law Queen’s University February 2007 To Be Published In: Grant Huscroft (ed.), Expounding the Constitution: Essays in Constitutional Theory (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) I. Introduction Defending the idea of ‘unwritten law’ has never been easy. Jeremy Bentham thought the very expression to be a ‘paradoxical and unmeaning epithet’.[1] In his view, social reform required ‘fixed and accurate’ laws—laws that ‘[w]e see, we hear, we touch; in short we handle…’[2] This empirical concept of law follows from the ideal of law as something produced by conscious acts of sovereign will. Central to this concept are, to use H.L.A. Hart’s expression, ‘rules of change’ that permit societies to escape the confines of ‘primitive’ custom.[3] The progressive march of legal theory, it may be said, has been away from medieval notions of law as customs practiced time out of mind or as the immutable dictates of natural law, away from the fiction that judges discover rather than make law, and towards modern notions of law as creative political acts recorded in writing. In terms of constitutional law, this march leads to the idea of written constitutionalism, a destination that the rebelling American colonists are often said to have reached first.[4] It was a task especially ‘reserved’ to the American people, wrote...
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...Legal Methods Outline How a Dispute Becomes a Case (16-29) I. Cases A. Procedural Posture: The movement of the case and the legal issues they hinge on. II. Reversing v. Overruling A. A court reverses the decision of a lower court in the same controversy. 1. Lower court is bound by precedent of higher courts – no exception. B. A court overrules itself - it disavows in a later, different case what it itself had ruled in a prior, different, but factually similar case. 1. Higher courts can overrule themselves – not bound by precedent. III. Res Judicata v. Stare Decisis A. Res Judicata – X may not ever again sue Y over this particular issue. 1. Res judicata - important in federal system of both state and federal courts because stops state court losing and then going to federal courts for the same issue. B. Stare Decisis – Requires following “the law,”/rule laid down by another case. 1. Appellate courts create stare decisis through opinions. 2. Law of the case – requires same defendant in every case. If the plaintiff wins, then those who come after can use it as well. A Case Timeline I. First Step - Is there a case? A. Is there a reasonable claim or cause of action? Is there a legal right for a remedy? – is this a question of “law”? – If no cause of action, then can’t be a case, but can be settled or just be dropped B. Can the individual prove by a preponderance...
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