Constitutional Law Prof Blog: Constitutional Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Constitutional Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Constitutional Law

Constitutional Law Prof Blog

News, analysis, and commentary on constitutional law issues in the courts, the administration, Congress, and the states; and commentary and analysis on constitutional law scholarship.
By Steven D. Schwinn, Ruthann Robson, Nareissa L. Smith

Post Frequency: 3.1/day

Last Entry: November 04, 2020 at 10:04:25

Beyond Citizenship: Bosniak's Theory of Personhood in Constitutional Law

Posted on May 03, 2010
What's the difference between a citizen and a person? Sometimes the difference is profound, as demonstrated by the current controversies surrounding Arizona Immigration Law, SB 1070, which we've most recently discussed here. Other times, citizenship and personhood are conflated, especially...

Proposed Amendments to Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070

Posted on May 01, 2010
The Arizona House of Representatives has proposed amendments to the controversial Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070 signed just last week. Arizona HB 2162 (NOW: immigration; border security) would amend SB 1070 as follows: Changes ?lawful contact? to ?lawful stop, detention...

Federalist Society Launches Supreme Court Nomination Site

Posted on May 01, 2010
SCOTUSreport is a new site from the Federalist Society. The site seeks to "collect in one place the key news and documents, as well as commentary from across the legal, political and philosophical spectrum, regarding the upcoming Supreme Court nomination...

Constitutional Challenges to Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070

Posted on May 01, 2010
Two more complaints have been filed in federal courts challenging the constitutionality of Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070. In addition to the complaint filed by the Tucson police officer Martin Escobar we discussed previously, Phoenix police officer David Salgado has...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Complaint Challenging Constitutionality of Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070

Posted on April 29, 2010
A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona's new immigration law SB1070 has been filed today in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. The Complaint alleges violations of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the...

Bills Respond to Citizens United

Posted on April 29, 2010
Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Chris Van Hollen introduced companion bills today in the Senate and the House to restrict expenditures on certain electioneering communication and to increase reporting and disclosure requirements for others in response to the Supreme Court's...

Cameras in the Courtrooms?

Posted on April 29, 2010
The Senate Judiciary Committee today voted out three bills that would provide for and encourage televised broadcast of federal court proceedings. The most significant measure, S. 446, would require the Supreme Court to open its proceedings to television coverage: The...

Arizona's Immigration Law, Supremacy, and Federal Preemption

Posted on April 28, 2010
Does Arizona's new immigration law, SB 1070, violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution? It may, in (at least) two ways. First, Arizona's immigration law, which authorizes state and local law enforcement officials to inquire into the immigration status...

Doe v. Reed, The Right to Remain Anonymous when Signing a Ballot Initiative: Oral Argument Analysis

Posted on April 28, 2010
Today's oral argument at the United States Supreme Court in Doe v. Reed (transcript here) revealed some skepticism about the claim that signing a petition should be protected by the First Amendment in order to avoid harassment. The background facts...

Update on Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070

Posted on April 27, 2010
There has been an outpouring of commentary and discussion of SB 1070 since our last post here. A few of the worthwhile materials include a NYT Room for Debate feature with Steven A. Camarota, Center for Immigration Studies; Hiroshi Motomura,...

Court to Hear Challenge to Violent Video Game Restrictions

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear California's appeal of a Ninth Circuit ruling that overturned the state's restrictions on violent video games under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The case, Schwarzenegger v. Video Software Dealers Ass'n, involves a facial...

Stevens on Abortion

Posted on April 26, 2010
Linda Greenhouse's Justice John Paul Stevens as Abortion-Rights Strategist is a terrific article in the latest issue of the UC Davis Law Review's excellent symposium on soon-to-be-retired Justice Stevens. Greenhouse seeks "to give Justice Stevens his due as a major...

Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070

Posted on April 24, 2010
The "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act," Arizona SB1070, just signed Governor Jan Brewer, is the "toughest" anti-immigration state law in the United States. Constitutional challenges are sure to follow. State laws seeking to regulation immigration status are...

Congress to Respond to Citizens United

Posted on April 23, 2010
Earlier this week, Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Mike Castle (R-DE) announced that they reached a bipartisan agreement to move forward with a legislative response to Citizens United v. FEC, the January 21 case that applied the First Amendment...

The Latest Challenge to Indiana's Voter ID Law

Posted on April 23, 2010
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana last week dismissed the latest attack on Indiana's voter ID law in Stewart v. Marion County. (Thanks to Election Law Blog for the link.) Recall that the Supreme Court upheld...

Constitutional Law Exam Drafting: The End of Semester Challenge

Posted on April 22, 2010
For professors, ConLaw and otherwise, 'tis the season to draft the final exam. Here are some principles, hints, reminders, observations, and opinions: 1/ Using another professor's exam is pedagogically unsound, unless, of course, your students attended another professor's class all...

Administration Re-Strengthens Title IX

Posted on April 22, 2010
The White House announced earlier this week that it was strengthening Title IX, the provision that prohibits sex discrimination by educational institutions that receive federal funds, through a new "dear colleague" letter to covered institutions providing guidance on compliance...

Denny Chin Confirmed to Second Circuit

Posted on April 22, 2010
The strategy to move forward with "noncontroversial" nominations such as that of Denny Chin, as we previously discussed, provided some success today. Chin was confirmed as a Second Circuit Judge by a vote of the Senate, 98-0. RR

District Judge Nominations and Third Circuit Confirmation

Posted on April 21, 2010
Obama nominated five persons for district judge today: Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi, presently a Magistrate Judge, for the District of Hawai'i; Judge Susan Richard Nelson, presently a Magistrate Judge, for the District of Minnesota; Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander (pictured right)...

Court Holds on Attorney's Fees, Access to Justice

Posted on April 21, 2010
The Supreme Court ruled today in Perdue v. Kenny that an attorney's fee may in exceptional circumstances be increased due to the attorney's superior performance. The case reaffirms the Court's prior rulings and validates an important component of equal access...

DOJ to Defend VRA Section 5 "Vigorously"

Posted on April 20, 2010
AAG Tom Perez told the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning that the Civil Rights Division is gearing up for the increased Voting Rights Act workload after the Census and is prepared to defend Section 5, the preclearance provision, "vigorously" against...

DOJ Civil Rights Chief to "Restore" and "Transform" Division

Posted on April 20, 2010
Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez told the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning that he intends to restore and transform the Civil Rights Division, a unit hit hard by a loss of 70% of career attorneys between 2003 and 2007 and...

Crush Porn, Animal Cruelty, and US v. Stevens: Opinion Analysis

Posted on April 20, 2010
Congressional enactment of 18 U.S.C. � 48 (1999) was motivated by a concern about so-called "crush porn." As the House Committee Report explained it, crush porn videos feature the intentional torture and killing of helpless animals, including cats, dogs, monkeys,...

Christian Legal Society (CLS) v. Martinez: Oral Argument Analysis

Posted on April 19, 2010
The transcript (here) of today's oral argument in Christian Legal Society (CLS) v. Martinez revealed a case in procedural disarray. Michael McConnell, arguing for CLS, had barely pronounced his well-crafted first sentence (?If Hastings is correct, a student who does...

Senate Judiciary Oversight of DOJ Civil Rights Division

Posted on April 19, 2010
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an oversight hearing of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division tomorrow, featuring AAG Tom Perez. Perez was confirmed on October 6, 2009. He testified in December on the U.S. implementation of human rights...

Obama v. Roberts (or the President v. the CJ of SCOTUS)

Posted on April 18, 2010
The persistent problem of the constitutional balance between the Executive and Judicial branches is personalized as a struggle between "two intellectual gladiators" with their "Coliseum" as the Supreme Court of the United States in an article in today's "Week in...

OLC Finds Some Problems with Constitution of US Virgin Islands

Posted on April 16, 2010
The Office of Legal Counsel recently posted a memorandum identifying some problems with the proposed constitution of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The memo, dated February 23, 2010, is the first that the OLC posted in 2010. The USVI is an...

Arkansas Court: State Constitutional Ballot Initiative Banning Adoption by Unmarried Couples Unconstitutional

Posted on April 16, 2010
Arkansas Act One, passed by the voters in November 2008 as an amendment to the state constitution, prohibits cohabiting same-sex couples and (unmarried) heterosexual couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents. Relying on the state constitution, Judge Christopher Piazza of...

Hospital Visitation and Decision-making

Posted on April 16, 2010
The Presidential Memorandum on Hospital Visitation seeks to insure that hospitals not deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability, and guarantee that all patients' advance directives, such as...

Taxation and Privacy

Posted on April 15, 2010
"Surrogate birth mothers" often have income from the "service" they have provided, but must they report that income as income? Or, as Bridget Crawford (pictured left) asks, does an income tax reporting requirement infringe upon a surrogate?s constitutional right to...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

New Baptist Covenant Blog
Last week, I pointed to the New Baptist Convenant website, now onl...

The Mexico Trucker Blog
I've written before about the perceived problems with relaxed rest...

Case Law Development: Constitutional Challenge to Paternity Laws Dismissed For Failure to State Claim
A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals uphel...