Acing Constitutional Law
Authors:
Weaver, Russell L. / Friedland, Steve I. / Hancock, Catherine / Lively, Donald E.
Edition:
1st
Copyright Date:
2010
17 chapters
have results for acing constitutional law
Chapter One. Judicial Review 41 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The justices usually state that they have a duty to avoid deciding constitutional issues unnecessarily (e.g., they might adopt a construction of an ambiguous statute or other law that avoids constitutional difficulties).
- In addition, the justices try to avoid deciding constitutional issues unnecessarily. One technique used by courts is to adopt a construction of an ambiguous statute or other law that avoids constitutional difficulties, rather than a construction that presents constitutional concerns. Likewise, if a state court has decided a case on a federal constitutional grounds, but also has decided it on “adequate and independent” state grounds, the Court might refuse to hear the case on the ground that the state court could reach the same result on state grounds anyway. As a result, there is no need for the federal courts to resolve the federal constitutional issue, and a federal opinion would provide nothing more than an advisory opinion.
- serves as the foundation to most judicial review issues, the overwhelming majority of law school Constitutional Law courses use
- , 428 U.S. 106 (1976), the Court held that doctors could establish standing to challenge on constitutional grounds a Missouri statute that excluded abortions that are not “medically indicated” from Medicaid coverage. The doctors who challenged the law performed nonmedically indicated abortions, and alleged that they would suffer financial injury (the loss of payment) if the statute remained in effect, and they also sought to assert the rights of their patients. The Court concluded that abortion doctors are “uniquely qualified” to litigate the constitutional claims, and that women seeking abortions might be reluctant to assert their rights for a variety of reasons: they may want to protect the privacy of their decisions, and an individual woman’s standing will be lost to mootness relatively quickly.
- Court held that the plaintiffs in that case established standing by challenging a substantial expenditure under Art. I, § 8, and by alleging that the expenditures violated the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment. The Court viewed those clauses as providing “a specific constitutional limitation upon the exercise by Congress of the taxing and spending power conferred by Art. I, § 8.” The Court distinguished the plaintiff on the basis that Frothingham’s attack was based on an allegation that her tax liability would be increased because of the Maternity Act, and that she would therefore suffer “a deprivation of property without due process of law.” The Court concluded that the Due Process Clause did not constitute a specific limitation on the federal spending power.
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Chapter Nine. Equal Protection 127 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Laws against same-sex marriage have been enacted by the states, and a federal prohibition on same-sex marriage was enacted in the Defense of Marriage Act. State court decisions and recently enacted legislation have established protection for same-sex marriage in a handful of states, but new laws or constitutional amendments have been enacted by popular vote in some states to overturn these court decisions and statutes. Those new laws and constitutional amendments, in turn, are now the subject of litigation in suits based on Equal Protection and Due Process grounds.
- 3. State court decisions and legislation in a handful of states have recognized the legality of gay marriage, but some new laws or constitutional amendments have overturned these decisions and statutes by popular vote. These new laws and amendments are now the subject of litigation based on Due Process and Equal Protection challenges.
- Court used rational basis scrutiny to hold that the Due Process right of privacy did not encompass a “constitutional right to engage in sodomy,” the Court turned to Equal Protection doctrine when it addressed sexual orientation in Court invalidated a state constitutional amendment that repealed state and local anti-discrimination laws provide protections for “homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships” and prohibited the future enactment of such laws. The Court reasoned that this classification lacked any rational relationship to a legitimate state interest. In effect, this amendment denied to a class of persons the right to seek the enactment of laws to protect themselves from discrimination. It thus violated the Equal Protection Clause.
- 1. “Affirmative action,” in the constitutional law context, typically refers to government policies or programs that establish preferences on the basis of race.
- , 517 U.S. 620 (1996), the Court invalidated a state constitutional amendment that repealed state and local anti-discrimination laws which provided protections for “homosexual, lesbian or bi-sexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships.”
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Chapter Four. State Power to Regulate Commerce 60 results (showing 5 best matches)
- G. If the state law discriminates against interstate commerce, is the state a market participant?
- F. If the state law discriminates against interstate commerce, can it meet strict judicial scrutiny?
- The State of Oklahoma enacts the following law: “There shall be no sale of goods in this state that were manufactured out-of-state without a license.” Is the Oklahoma law constitutional?
- If yes, the state laws likely will be found constitutional.
- I. If the state law discriminates against out-of-state citizens or residents, what constitutional analysis is most appropriate?
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Chapter Ten. Freedom of Expression Part 2 75 results (showing 5 best matches)
- , 531 U.S. 533 (2001), the Court struck down a federal law that prohibited federally funded legal services offices from challenging the constitutional or statutory validity of welfare laws. To the extent that Congress precluded legal services offices from pursuing theories that may be critical to effective litigation, the law was invalid.
- , 425 U.S. 748 (1976), and extended constitutional protection to commercial speech in striking down a Virginia law that banned the advertisement of prescription drugs.
- 5. The Court tends to be restrictive in its application of the vagueness and overbreadth doctrines. The Court has stated that facial challenges involve “strong medicine” because they allow “a defendant whose speech may be outside the scope of constitutional protection to escape punishment because the state failed to draft its law with sufficient precision.”
- 6. Appellate courts must independently review constitutional claims in obscenity cases. As a result, even if a jury concludes that a publication is inconsistent with contemporary community standards, the Court can review and reverse for constitutional deficiencies.
- , 465 U.S. 271 (1984), the Court upheld a Minnesota law that authorized public employees to select an exclusive representative to bargain collectively over the terms and conditions of their employment, but provided that a government employer could only exchange views on nonmandatory subjects with the exclusive representative. The law was challenged by faculty at one college who claimed a violation of their constitutional rights. In upholding the restriction, the Court concluded that members of the public do not generally have a right to be heard by public bodies engaged in policymaking, and concluded therefore that employees’ speech and associational rights were not therefore infringed: “The state has in no way restrained appellees’ freedom to speak on any education-related issue or their freedom to associate or not to associate with whom they please, including the exclusive representative. Nor has the state attempted to suppress any ideas.”
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Title Page 7 results (showing 5 best matches)
Chapter Twelve. The Free Exercise Clause 34 results (showing 5 best matches)
- suggested that it might strike down a law that burdens religion when the law implicates other constitutional rights, particularly free speech rights.
- decision provides that individuals are not entitled to religious exemptions from neutral, generally applicable, criminal laws. In this case, the law is neutral (it was not created to discriminate against religion) and is applicable to everyone regardless of their religious beliefs. As a result, the law is probably constitutional, and the college students are not entitled to an exemption that would allow them to use LSD or other hallucinogenic drugs.
- did suggest that the Court might strike down a law that burdens religion when it implicates other constitutional rights, particularly free speech rights. For example, in the Court found that the Oregon law did not discriminate against religion and did not present a combination of constitutional claims.
- did suggest that it might strike down a law that burdens religion when it implicates other constitutional rights, particularly free speech rights.
- In a number of later cases, the Court has struck down laws that infringed religious beliefs. Indeed, for a three decade period, the Court held that a number of laws must give way to religious objections. For example, in , 367 U.S. 488 (1961), the Court struck down a state constitutional provision that required public officials to declare a belief in God as a prerequisite to assuming office. The Court held that the government may not compel anyone to affirm or deny a religious belief.
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Chapter Five. Intergovernmental Immunities 13 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Congress enacts a law “prohibiting states from paying overtime to employees in excess of 30 hours without some form of extra pay for those hours.” Is this law constitutional?
- Congress enacts a law to promote energy conservation. The law says that “any state that engages in wind power production or research will be compensated by the federal government of up to $200 million per state, depending on the production or research.” Most states will not be able to pass up this amount of money, no matter what the states’ position is on this alternative energy source. Is this law constitutional?
- While such a law likely would have been unconstitutional under , it is equally likely to be found constitutional under
- —Is Congress commandeering the states to regulate on Congress’ behalf or is Congress merely encouraging the states through monetary incentives or a choice of regulatory schemes? While commandeering is considered unconstitutional coercion, the other forms of incentives are considered constitutional.
- —Is the taxation direct or indirect? Both might be permissible. If direct, the key question is whether the tax is commensurate with the costs of federal services or program and not excessive. If indirect, the question becomes what kind of tax is it. Is the federal government taxing the interest on state bonds or state employee salaries? If the answer is yes to either, it is probably constitutional.
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Chapter Two. National Legislative Power 43 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Congress enacts a law prohibiting “any false information to be distributed by states or local governments about when and under what circumstances voting will take place for all public elections.” The law follows congressional hearings that determined several states deterred minorities from voting through the distribution of disinformation about times and places of voting in elections. The law provided $1 million fines for every incidence of discrimination and allowed private suits to enforce voting rights. Is the law Constitutional?
- The Constitutional Convention.
- effect on interstate commerce are almost always considered to have a substantial effect on interstate commerce because it affects the marketplace of commerce. In addition, if a law requires proof of a sufficient nexus to interstate commerce, that proof can meet the constitutional requirement on a case-by-case basis.
- A ferryboat regularly plied the waters of Lake Norman in the late 1800s. The lake was located entirely within the State of North Carolina. The boat traveled all around the lake, especially in the summer, transporting people and food from nearby states, such as South Carolina, to people who lived on the lake. Congress enacted a regulation that required all boats such as the Lake Norman ferry to carry a certain number and type of life jackets, among other limitations. Is the federal law constitutional?
- If the law is based on the enforcement power of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, the law must not only be remedial—remedying state discrimination—but also congruent and proportional to the remedy allotted. The Court applies a congruence and proportionality test when Congress uses its Section 5 power to reach conduct beyond the scope of the actual guarantees of due process and equal protection found in Section 1. In order to authorize private individuals to recover money damages against the States, there are several requirements. There must be a pattern of discrimination by the States which violates the Fourteenth Amendment, and the remedy imposed by Congress must be “congruent and proportional” to the targeted violation. The Court determines proportionality in several steps. First, the Court identifies, with some precision the scope of the constitutional right in issue to determine whether Section 1 places any limitations upon the States’ treatment of the class of people...
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Chapter Ten. Freedom of Expression 67 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Even in the First Amendment area, the Court tends to be restrictive in its application of the vagueness and overbreadth doctrines. The Court has stated that facial challenges involve “strong medicine” because they allow “a defendant whose speech may be outside the scope of constitutional protection to escape punishment because the state failed to draft its law with sufficient precision.” , 413 U.S. 601, 610 (1973). By using this approach, the Court is better able to decide whether a law can be narrowly construed to avoid constitutional infirmities. Sometimes, in the face of an overbreadth claim, the Court will adopt a limiting construction that saves the law. As a result, the Court has tended to apply the overbreadth doctrine “only as a last resort,” and has generally required that the overbreadth be “substantial” before a law will be invalidated on its face.
- , 547 U.S. 47 (2006). That case, discussed earlier in connection with the right of association, involved a federal statute requiring law schools to admit military recruiters on the same basis as other recruiters on pain of losing federal funds. The Court upheld the law, noting that Congress has a constitutional right to provide for the common defense, which includes the power to require colleges and law schools to provide campus access to military recruiters. The Court rejected the notion that the “unconstitutional conditions” doctrine would limit Congress’ authority to require law schools to provide access to military recruiters. The Court noted that the Solomon Amendment left colleges and law schools free to exercise their First Amendment rights because the Amendment “neither limits what law schools may say nor requires them to say anything. Law schools remain free under the statute to express whatever views they may have on the military’s congressionally mandated employment...
- , 531 U.S. 533 (2001), in which the Court struck down a federal law that prohibited federally funded legal services offices from challenging the constitutional or statutory validity of welfare laws. The Court concluded that Congress was not obligated to fund legal services or to fund the entire range of legal claims. However, to the extent that Congress precluded legal services offices from pursuing theories that may be critical to effective litigation, the law was invalid. In other words, Congress could not insulate the government’s interpretation of the Constitution from challenge by legal services attorneys. Because the case involved only private speech (involving the developing and presenting of legal theories), as opposed to government expression through an agent, the Court found the government’s analogy to
- The Court has also imposed constitutional limitations on recovery in false light privacy actions. Like defamation cases, false light claims involve false statements or suggestions that cause injury. However, unlike defamation cases, the false light information does not necessarily cause reputational injury. The most important false light case is 385 U.S. 374 (1967), which arose when a magazine misrepresented a family’s hostage experience. In deciding the case, the Court overrode state law by imposing the
- The only court to consider the issue has rejected the idea that non-obscene pornography is outside of constitutional protection, and can be prohibited if it conveys negative images regarding women. In doing so, the court rejected the arguments of scholars who have argued in favor of the validity of such prohibitions. , 771 F.2d 323 (7th Cir. 1985), in an opinion by Judge Easterbrook, the Ninth Circuit struck down the law because it involved discrimination against speech. Speech which refers to women in the “approved way” ( ..., artistic, or political qualities of the work taken as a whole.” Judge Easterbrook concluded that the state “may not ordain preferred viewpoints” and may not “declare one perspective right and silence opponents.” “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word...
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Chapter Six. Procedural Due Process 7 results (showing 5 best matches)
- A concerned parent sought to civilly commit her 11–year-old son due to his troubling behavior. The behavior included hallucinations, severe bouts of depression, and manic phases where the child would sit and sing and yell for hours on end. The state law permitted immediate commitment by parents for up to 6 months, with medical reviews and informal hearings every six months thereafter. The son, through a guardian appointed by the court, challenged the law. Is the law constitutional?
- Shakira Sandoval, a 7th grade student at Parton Public School in Los Angeles, was suspended for 9 days for talking back to a teacher. The procedure at the school was to permit immediate suspension, “followed by a mailed statement of the reasons to the student’s parents. After half of the suspension has been served, the student can seek to have the remainder voided through a conference with the principal or assistant principal.” Is this procedural scheme constitutional?
- ue process of law is one of the more important rights in the Constitution. There are two separate due process provisions in the Amendments to the Constitution with the same language. One clause is located in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution and limits only the federal government. The other clause is located in the Fourteenth Amendment, and limits the states. Each clause prohibits the government from depriving individuals of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. (While there are two due process clauses, there is only one equal protection clause, in the Fourteenth Amendment. That clause limits states only. When the Court is confronted by federal action challenged as a violation of equal protection, the Court relies on an implied version of the doctrine within the Fifth Amendment due process clause.
- An initial fork in the road in evaluating procedural due process claims is whether the claim is considered to result from a legislative or adjudicative determination. A legislative determination derives from an action of Congress, a state legislature or municipal subdivision (or the adoption of a rule or regulation by an administrative agency). An adjudicative determination derives from enforcement of a law or administrative agency decision.
- Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 553, 554, 556 & 557. Despite the fact that agencies usually have some form of hearing or process prior to adopting new rules, this process might not be constitutionally required for regulated entities affected by the rule or law. determinations are different and generally fall within the constraints of procedural due process. If, for example, an individual is sanctioned for violating a statute or regulation, those sanctions might constitute a deprivation of property within procedural due process. Such an individualized sanction differs with a law or regulation that enacts a general deprivation, such as an increase in tax or decrease in benefits. This fork in the road is evidenced in
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Chapter Seven. Substantive Protection of Economic Rights 28 results (showing 5 best matches)
- , which articulated the concept of substantive due process as applied to contracts, constitutional protection of contractual interests was grounded in the contracts clause which prohibits states from enacting any “Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts.”
- Constitutional protection of contractual interests is grounded in the contracts clause which prohibits states from enacting any “Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts.”
- The nation enters a severe economic downturn with lots of people out of work and unable to make their mortgage payments. As a result, foreclosure rates spike to near those of the Depression Era. Congress and the states pass economic stimulus packages, all to no avail. In an effort to relieve the burden on society, the Commonwealth of Kentucky passes a law providing for debtor relief. Under the terms of the law, all debtors are granted a one year moratorium on the payment of their mortgages. During this time, no interest will accrue on the principal balance, and the mortgages will be treated as if the payments had been made. Is the Kentucky law constitutional?
- By the 1930s, following the constitutional crisis related to President Roosevelt’s so-called Court-packing plan, the Court moved to a more deferential approach towards economic regulation. In , 300 U.S. 379 (1937), the Court upheld a State of Washington law stipulating minimum wages for women and minors rejecting a contract clause claim. Likewise, in , 348 U.S. 483 (1955), the Court upheld an Oklahoma law that made it illegal for anyone except a licensed optometrist or ophthalmologist to fit lenses or to duplicate or replace frames lenses or other optical appliances, except upon written prescriptive authority of an Oklahoma licensed ophthalmologist or optometrist.
- Regulations enacted under the police power might be challenged on any number of constitutional grounds including the contract clause, the protection for liberty contained in the Fourteenth Amendment, the equal protection clause, and sometimes the privileges and immunities clause. For example, in , the Court struck down a state law that prohibited foreign insurance companies from doing business in the state without a license and without retaining an agent authorized to conduct business on its behalf: “[T]he statute is a violation of the fourteenth amendment of the federal constitution, in that it deprives the defendants of their liberty without due process of law…. The ‘liberty’ mentioned in that amendment means, not only the right of the citizen to be free from the mere physical restraint of his person, as by incarceration, but the term is deemed to embrace the right of the citizen to br free in the enjoyment of all his faculties; to be free to use them in all lawful ways; to live...
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Chapter Eleven. The Establishment Clause 47 results (showing 5 best matches)
- 370 U.S. 421 (1962), the Court struck down a prayer written and imposed by a local school board under the authority of state law. The Court held that the prayer had both a religious purpose and effect, and concluded: “[T]he constitutional prohibition against laws respecting an establishment of religion must at least mean that [it] is no part of the business of government to compose official prayers for any group [of] people to recite [as] part of a religious program carried on by government.”
- The Commonwealth of Kentucky, anxious to promote the education of Kentucky’s children, enacts a law providing for financial subsidies for parochial schools. In enacting the law, the legislature stated that: “By educating children outside the public school system, Kentucky’s parochial schools provide a financial benefit to Kentucky’s taxpayers. It is only fitting that Kentucky contribute to the cost of operating those schools.” The legislation provides a 10% salary supplement to all teachers in parochial schools. No similar funding is available for other private schools. Is the financial subsidy constitutional?
- , 463 U.S. 783 (1983), which involved the Nebraska legislature’s practice of beginning each day with a prayer by a chaplain, the Court held that legislative prayer is constitutional.
- • School voucher programs can be constitutional if they are not skewed in favor of religious schools so long as the aid that goes to religious schools arrives as a result of private (parental) choices.
- • Christmas and Chanukah displays that do not convey the message that the government is “endorsing” religion can be constitutional.
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Chapter Eight. Substantive Due Process: Modern Fundamental Rights 48 results (showing 5 best matches)
- , 517 U.S. 620 (1996), the Court struck down a Colorado constitutional amendment prohibiting the state and municipalities from extending the protection of anti-discrimination laws to homosexuals. From the Court’s perspective, the law was so unrelated to a legitimate state interest that it could be understood only as a reflection of “animus” toward homosexuals. The Court did not indicate whether sexual orientation provided the basis for a heightened standard of review.
- 316 U.S. 535 (1942). The Court in this case invalidated a state law that mandated sterilization for habitual felons on grounds it burdened fundamental liberties of marriage and procreation. Although the decision was grounded in equal protection rather than due process, the analysis and outcome evidenced the Court’s willingness to expand fundamental rights and liberties beyond specific constitutional enumerations.
- Reflecting its cautious approach to due process review, the Court stressed the importance of ensuring that rights not enumerated by the Constitution are not merely imposed pursuant to the justices’ personal values. The critical inquiry thus was whether the proposed liberty interest was “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty“ or “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and traditions.” From its perspective, and citing the history and pervasiveness of anti-sodomy laws, the Court found that the proposed right met neither of these criteria. The outcome reflected further the concern that the judiciary becomes “most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution.”
- . Because the state criminalized “deviate sexual intercourse” in the context of same-sex relationships, but not opposite-sex relationships, she maintained that there was an equal protection violation. This outcome would have enabled the state to enact an anti-sodomy law that applied both to heterosexual and homosexual relationships. In a dissenting opinion joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice Thomas, Justice Scalia challenged the majority’s opinion as hypocritical, driven by irrelevant considerations, and the product of a “law-professor culture, that has largely signed on to the homosexual agenda.” Scalia also criticized the Court for departing from norms that establish fundamental rights only on the basis of what is “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.” Without the power to enact legislation based upon moral choices, he maintained, state laws against a range of behavior including incest, prostitution, bestiality, and obscenity could be called into doubt....
- of concerning “a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy,” from his perspective was “about ‘the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men,’ namely, ‘the right to be let alone.’ ” Even if sodomy had been widely condemned for centuries, Blackmun argued that long history and strong feelings should not shield a law from constitutional review. He further noted that freedom to differ meant little if it covered only “things that do not matter much.”
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Chapter Thirteen. State Action 34 results (showing 5 best matches)
- A city passes a housing law that requires landlords to maintain rental property in a clean, healthy and safe condition, and requires that all landlords treat tenants “fairly.” In addition, the city requires that all landlords hold a license to rent property. Following a dispute, a landlord summarily evicts a tenant from his apartment. The tenant sues the landlord claiming that the landlord failed to provide him with due process of law during the eviction process. Is the landlord subject to the constitutional requirement of due process?
- , freedom of speech, free exercise of religion, freedom of the press) or the Fourteenth Amendment apply. Thus, these constitutional provisions (with the exception of the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition against slavery) do not constrain the actions of private individuals. Private conduct may be actionable under tort or statutory law, but it is not constitutionally prohibited in and of itself.
- does not want to manage the housing itself. Accordingly, it creates a separate corporation (The Public Housing Management Authority (PHMA)). The PHMA functions independently of the city, but the city council appoints all of its members. When the PHMA evicts a tenant, the tenant sues claiming that he was denied due process of law. Is the PHMA subject to the constitutional requirement of due process?
- , 387 U.S. 369 (1967), the Court found state action in a California constitutional amendment that removed the authority of state and local governments to “limit or abridge, directly or indirectly, the right of any person, who is willing or desires to sell, lease or rent any part or all of his real property, to decline to sell, lease or rent such property to such person or persons as he, in his absolute discretion, chooses.” The Court viewed the amendment as more than a repeal of existing statutes because it nullified local anti-discrimination policies, and established “a purported constitutional right to privately discriminate on grounds which admittedly would be unavailable under the Fourteenth Amendment should state action be involved.” In other words, the “right to discriminate is now one of the basic policies of the State,” and there is a risk that the amendment “will significantly encourage and involve the State in private discriminations.”
- 2. Thus, these constitutional provisions (with the exception of the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition against slavery) do not constrain the actions of private individuals.
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Chapter Three. Federal Executive Powers 27 results (showing 5 best matches)
- —Can the Executive branch claim this implied constitutional privilege? Balance the competing interests involved, particularly examining whether the context is a civil or criminal case.
- The federal Executive branch’s constitutional powers are generally located in Article II of the Constitution. The express powers are wide-ranging “and are also referred to as enumerated powers”. These powers include faithfully executing the law, appointing and removing government officers, participating in the legislative process by approving or vetoing legislative enactments, acting as the Commander–In–Chief of the armed forces, serving as the country’s chief diplomat in relations with foreign entities, entering into treaties with other countries, and more. These powers are vested entirely in the President of the United States, although the President’s support “team” includes several hundred high-ranking officers and many more staff members. The Executive branch has implied powers providing security as well, particularly the power to implement these express powers. One implied
- ...on the World Wide Web jams several of the major sites, including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, until they are so overloaded, the sites crash. Congress, in recess at the time of the overload, has not created legislation for monitoring and preventing such crashes. Congress had been considering a bill just before the recess that would have given the President a variety of powers to prevent interruption of the World Wide Web through the creation of a new Computer Security Department, authorizing immediate action if the Web had been interrupted. The bill had grown to more than 1,000 pages and Congress was simply trying to stop unrelated additions and get it ready for passage. Through an executive order, the President does not wait for the minimum of two weeks before Congress returned to consider the passage of the law, but instead creates a new department, the Department of Internet Security, with the power to confiscate domestic computers involved in or suspected to be...constitutional
- 1. Carrying Out the Law
- Congress enacts the “Legitimate Medical Practice” Act, 21 U.S.C. 801, et seq., a law that dictates the general scope of permissible medical practices in a variety of contexts, including insurance reimbursement, research and “alternative” forms of treatment practices. The State of Vermont enacts a subsequent law prohibiting “all futile treatment,” including resuscitation of terminally ill patients in the final states of death under certain circumstances. An exception is if the patient requests resuscitation. The Attorney General of the United States interprets the federal law, the Legitimate Medical Practice Act, to prohibit “do not resuscitate” orders unless the patient specifically requests it, reversing the Vermont law. The Attorney General then threatened to prosecute any Vermont doctor or hospital that followed the Vermont law. A physician who works in the Emergency room of a big Vermont hospital files suit for a declaratory judgment of her rights. How should the court rule?
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- Thomson Reuters have created this publication to provide you with accurate and authoritative information concerning the subject matter covered. However, this publication was not necessarily prepared by persons licensed to practice law in a particular jurisdiction. Thomson Reuters are not engaged in rendering legal or other professional advice, and this publication is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. If you require legal or other expert advice, you should seek the services of a competent attorney or other professional.
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- Publication Date: March 10th, 2010
- ISBN: 9780314181350
- Subject: Constitutional Law
- Series: Acing Series
- Type: Exam Prep
- Description: This study aid features an innovative method of content organization. It uses a checklist format to lead students through questions they need to ask to fully evaluate the legal problem they are trying to solve. It also synthesizes the material in a way that most students are unable to do on their own, and assembles the different issues, presenting a clear guide to procedural analysis that students can draw upon when writing their exams.