May
14
The Constitutionality of Health Reform’s “Individual Mandate”
Posted by: Joel Teitelbaum | May 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment
As noted in my blog post last week (“The Beginning of Health Reform“), pushback against the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was swift. Members of nearly 40 state legislatures have proposed legislation or constitutional amendments limiting or opposing certain provisions of the Act, with most of the proposals targeting the Act’s requirement that [...]
Apr
3
What Are The Core Constitutional Values Behind The Tea Party Movement?
Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | April 3, 2010 | 1 Comment
I recently posted an article on SSRN entitled “Charters, Compacts and Tea Parties: The Decline and Resurrection of a Delegation View of the Constitution.” You can download the article here. The emergence of the Tea Party Movement as a political phenomenon has generated a great deal of media attention and punditry over the last year. [...]
Mar
2
Federalism, Free Markets, and Free Speech
Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | March 2, 2010 | 11 Comments
The Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC strikes down as unconstitutional a federal law that prohibits corporations and unions from using general treasury funds to make independent expenditures that expressly advocate the election or defeat of candidates for office. The majority opinion, written by Justice Kennedy, ignores hundreds of years of Supreme Court [...]
Dec
7
Are There Any Tories On Tory Hill?
Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | December 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment
In a few months, the Marquette University Law School community will pack up and move to its new building, located on Tory Hill. Perhaps this is a good time to consider whether any actual “Tories” will reside there. This is doubtful, because American political thought does not have a history of embracing the Tory philosophy. [...]
Nov
27
Federalism and Criminal Law
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | November 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment
This is the fourth in a series of posts reviewing last term’s criminal cases in the United States Supreme Court and previewing the new term. Habeas corpus presents the classic federalism problem in criminal law: how can federal courts overturn flawed state-court judgments while maintaining due respect for state sovereignty and the autonomy of state criminal-justice systems? But federalism issues [...]
Oct
7
Searching for Negative Space in the Constitution
Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | October 7, 2009 | 3 Comments
Some people dislike the game of soccer. They observe the players running around on the field and it all seems like random chaos. Soccer aficionados, however, are not focusing on the players. They are watching the spaces in between the players. These empty spaces ebb and flow, like waves in the ocean, creating momentary opportunities [...]
Sep
20
A Republican Form of Government
Posted by: Edward A. Fallone | September 20, 2009 | 4 Comments
On September 17, I participated in the Constitution Day program at the Law School. All of the presenters were asked to discuss one part of the United States Constitution that is often overlooked. My choice was the “republican form of government” clause, Article IV Section 4, which reads as follows: “The United States shall guarantee [...]
Sep
17
A Good Crisis and an Opportunity: The Lessons of Catholic Social Teaching
Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | September 17, 2009 | 7 Comments
In conjunction with some papers that I am completing, I have been thinking a lot about the Catholic notion of subsidiarity and what how it may inform our thinking about proposed expansions of the state in response to various “crises,” e.g., the financial seizure, global warming and perceived flaws in the delivery of health care. [...]
Feb
26
McCormick on the Persistence of Ex Parte Young
Posted by: Paul M. Secunda | February 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment
The faculty at Marquette Law School welcomed Professor Marcia McCormick of the Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law to a faculty workshop this past Tuesday. Professor McCormick, who focuses on the law of federal courts and employment discrimination, among other areas, discussed her new paper on the persistence of the case of Ex Parte Young [...]
Jan
26
Health Care Magnet?
Posted by: Richard M. Esenberg | January 26, 2009 | 1 Comment
Last January, I published a piece in WI Interest, the journal of the Wisconsin Public Policy Research Institute, arguing that the drafters of Healthy Wisconsin — or any similar program purporting to enact a universal entitlement to health care in a single state — could not constitutionally impose a residency requirement, creating the risk of [...]
Dec
29
Hills on Local Democracy and ERISA Preemption
Posted by: Paul M. Secunda | December 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Rick Hills (NYU), one of the more thought-provoking and provocative thinkers over at PrawfsBlawg, has an interesting post on the interaction between the democratic process and the law of ERISA preemption. His post takes off from the recent ERISA preemption case of Golden Gate Restaurant Association, in which the Ninth Circuit recently held that a [...]
Nov
14
Laboratories of Democracy at the Local Level
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | November 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Matt Parlow has a thought-provoking new article in print: Progressive Policy-Making on the Local Level: Rethinking Traditional Notions of Federalism, 17 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 371 (2008). (A draft can be downloaded here.) Matt contends that the oft-quoted argument of Justice Brandeis (pictured to the left) that states may appropriately serve as laboraties for “novel social and economic [...]
Blog Editors
- Alan Borsuk
- Bruce E. Boyden
- Edward A. Fallone
- Melissa L. Greipp
- Scott C. Idleman
- Lisa Mazzie
- Michael M. O'Hear
- Ryan Scoville
