It is time for Congress to end its fifty-year experiment in post hoc federal court enforcement of constitutional criminal procedure. By clinging to ineffectual federal habeas review of state criminal cases, Congress is pouring tax dollars down the drain and overlooking a more effective way to enforce the Constitution: helping… Read More »
Judges have the often unenviable task of having to answer very difficult legal questions. Some apprehension toward this task is understandable, so how might a judge duck the task of writing a new doctrinal test to resolve the hard question and similar claims in the future? Aside from using familiar… Read More »
Owning a stun gun or Taser is a crime in seven states and several cities. Carrying irritant sprays, such as pepper spray or Mace, is probably illegal in several jurisdictions. Even possessing irritant sprays at home is illegal in Massachusetts if you’re not a citizen.
Yet in most of these… Read More »
The Supreme Court has recently declared several categories of prisoners, such as juvenile and mentally retarded offenders, to be categorically ineligible for capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment. If these “death ineligible” offenders nonetheless sit on death row with procedurally defective habeas corpus petitions, can the writ be used to… Read More »
That some religious beliefs clash with the gay rights movement is undeniable. When these interests conflict in the form of litigation and both sides adopt the rhetoric of rights, the resulting rights clash challenges the United States legal system’s ability to come to a principled result. While the public views… Read More »
In 1986, Congress enacted “a comprehensive scheme prohibiting the employment of illegal aliens in the United States.” Recently, many municipalities have taken matters into their own hands because of dissatisfaction over federal enforcement of these employment regulations. Municipalities across the country have enacted, or considered enacting, ordinances that penalize employers of… Read More »
Lately, it seems that the Supreme Court has taken a strong interest in the question whether, and under what circumstances, religious speech and symbolism are constitutionally permissible in government-sponsored settings. Last Term, in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, the Supreme Court considered whether a city had to allow the Summum religious… Read More »
Defenders of sex and race inequality often contend that women and people of color are better off with fewer rights and opportunities. This claim straddles substantive debates that are rarely considered together, linking such seemingly disparate disputes as the struggles over race-based affirmative action, antiabortion laws, and marital rape exemptions.… Read More »
Reports of the death of Title VII’s disparate impact theory of discrimination in the wake of Ricci v. DeStefanomay be exaggerated. Widely praised and widely criticized in the newspapers and the blogosphere, Ricci is the latest, but not the last, chapter in a long-running feud between Congress and the Supreme Court regarding… Read More »
In the heat of the 2008 election season—following the new tradition of the 2000 and 2004 elections—candidates, political parties, and others filed new lawsuits practically every day over election law issues. In mid-September 2008, two Ohio controversies garnered national attention. In one case, Republicans filed suit to block first-time Ohio… Read More »