Constitutional Law

How to reverse SCOTUS interpretation of a constitutional provision

Amend the Constitution

Authors of the Federalist Papers

1. Alexander Hamilton, 2. James Madison, 3. John Jay

Four Cornerstones of our Constitutional Government

1. Checks and Balances 2. Federalism 3. Protection of Individual Rights 4. Judicial Review

Restrictions on Constitutional Decisions

1. Court should not decide a case based on a constitutional question if it CAN BE decided on a non-constitutional grounds. 2. Court should not anticipate a constitutional question but wait for an appropriate controversy.

Constitutional Standing Requirements

1. Injury (plaintiff must allege he or she has suffered or will imminently will suffer an injury. 2. Causation (injury allegedly traceable to defendant's conduct) 3. Redressability: (plaintiff must allege that a favorable federal court decision is likely to redress the injury).

Limits on Judicial Power

1. Interpretive limits, 2. Congressional limits,3. Justicability limits

Two branches of Adequate and Independent State Grounds Doctrine

1. Procedural 2. Substantive

Importance of Standing

1. Promotes separation of powers (court can't just pick an issue and decide it). 2. Promotes judicial efficiency 3. Improves judicial decision making. 4. Promotes the value of fairness.

Benefits of Stare Decisis

1. Provides stability and continuity to constitutional understanding, 2. Enables the Court to avoid rethinking settled issues every time they arise, 3. Provides a safeguard against judges who desire to import their own ideologies into the constitutional text.

Holding of Ex Parte McCardle

Appellate jurisdiction of SCOTUS is not derived from the Congress but from the Constitution except for some limited exceptions by Congress.

The Very Essence of Judicial Duty

Determine whether a statute conflicts with the Constitution

Dual Sovereignty

Floor/Ceiling Analogy. Federal Constitution sets the floor of a person's rights. States cannot go below this floor. They can, however, expand rights and set the "ceiling" of rights.

Federalists

Group that opposed the Bill of Rights and favored a strong central Federal government

Author of the Bill of Rights

James Madison

Formal Jurisprudence Based on Natural Law

Jurisprudence based on the Law of the Creator/God's Law

The law we will practice upon graduation

Legal Realist Jurisprudence

Neutral Principles or Process-Oriented Jurisprudence

Like an assembly line. The results may not be identical like an assembly line product but should be uniform

Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency

Makes a difference between "sovereign states" and "private individuals" for standing purposes. Sovereign states have to meet the same requirements for standing as private individuals but courts are little more lenient toward sovereign states

Prudential Standing Requirements

Party generally may assert only his or her own rights and cannot raise claims of third parties not before the court.

Holding of United States v. Klein

Statute directing SCOTUS to dismiss all pending cases in reference to pardons after the Civil War exceeding Congress's authority. Congress cannot tell a court how to decide a case and to override a Presidential pardon.

Principle of Adequate and Independent State Grounds

1. Generally SCOTUS only reviews questions of federal law when reviewing state decisions. 2. State courts are final arbiters of state law. 3. If the decision only rests on state law there is not federal question for SCOTUS to review. 4. If state court decisions rests on both state and federal then SCOTUS can review.

Four Part Test to Determine of Adequate and Independent State Grounds Exist

1. Is the independence of the asserted state ground apparent from the four corners of the opinion. 2. Did the state court feel compelled by what it understood the federal constitution to require. 3. Did the decision rest primarily on federal grounds? 4. Is the non-federal ground so interwoven with the federal ground as not to be independent.

Beliefs of Sociological Jurisprudence

1. Law could be derived from basic principles that were discovered from moral philosophy, history and societal consensus that could be observed and verified by judges. 2. Judicial rulings involve judge-made, rather than judge-discovered rules. 3. Judges should make law by adjusting legal principles to changing social conditions. 4. Court decisions should be evaluated in terms of the values shared by a majority of the public

Seven Approaches to Constitutional Interpretation

1. Plain meaning of the text. 2. The relevant history 3. The intent of the framers 4. Judicial precedents 5. Intervening changes in circumstances 6. Tradition 7. Moral and Social Policy Values

Formal Jurisprudence Based on Natural Law Characterized By:

1. The law existed apart from those who decreed it. 2. Judges were seen as discovering law and then applying it to the cases before them. 3. Legislators were seen as bound by a higher law beyond their control. THE LAW WAS TRULY NEUTRAL BECAUSE IT DID NOT FAVOR PARTICULAR CLASSES OF PERSONS. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, lawyers and scholars began to discount the idea the law could be separated from the persons who made it.

Legal Realist Jurisprudence Beliefs

1. There was no law that existed apart from the government decision-makers. 2. Persons in power exercised that power to benefit themselves. 3. Judges' rulings reflected their individual views. 4. The law was simply what governmental officials decided to do in resolving disputes between 5. individuals or economic forces. 6. These legal rules written by legislators and judges were only expressions by persons in power as to how they would exercise that power. 7. Legislation was (1) a communication to judges as to how the legislators wished private or social disputes to be resolved and (2) notice to the citizens of that fact.

Total Number of Delegates that Signed Constitution

38

Total Number of Delegates to Constitutional Convention

55

Principle of Stare Decisis

Constitutional principles, once decided, should remain decided and should not be reopened.

Intervening Changes in Circumstances Approach to Constitutional Interpretation

Concede society has changed from the late 18th century

Holding of Robertson v. Seattle Audobon Society

Congress can change the law used to decide a case provided the change is made before the case is decided.

Relevant History Approach to Constitutional Interpretation

Examine historical documents surrounding formation and interpretation of the Constitution.

Standing

Focuses on plaintiff and asks whether this particular person is the right person to present this dispute to the court.

Results of Allen v. Wright

Set basis for personal standing. Parents sued over racial segregation of schools. Their children were not harmed by the practice. They were not effected personally so they did not have standing.

Problem with the Intent of the Framers Approach to Constitutional Interpretation

Some say ascertain the intent of the framers. Others say ascertain the intent of the ones who voted to ratify. Some say the intent of either is inconsequential. What matters is what the words mean at the time of drafting.

The Holding of Marbury v. Madison

The Supreme Court of the United States has the authority to review laws and legislative acts to determine whether they comply with the United States Constitution.

Holding of District of Columbia v. Heller

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed was the most important portion of the 2nd Amendment even though it was latter part of sentence. "the inherent right of self defense has been central to the Second Amendment. Right is not unlimited though.

Justiciability Limits

There must be an actual controversy involved. The court must not be offering an advisory opinion, the plaintiff must have standing, and the issues must be ripe but neither moot nor violative of the political question doctrine.

Legal Realist Jurisprudence Characteristics

This method responded to Holmes's first critique of formalism, that law inevitably reflected the divisions of society. It advocated the changing focus from examining the correct principles to examining the exercise of the power of the individuals who made the law.

Tradition Approach to Constitutional Interpretation

Traditions of this country, civilized society

Judicial Precedent Approach to Judicial Interpretation

When done, under the supremacy clause no one can go against it. Can argue that they got it wrong