Constitutional Law – Page 31 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Lewd and Lascivious Behavior Laws: A Milwaukee Story

Post author:Irene Ten Cate
Post published:November 11, 2013
Post category:Civil Rights Constitutional Law Criminal Law & Process Milwaukee Public Wisconsin Criminal Law & Process Wisconsin Law & Legal System

The Accused

Lee Erickson’s bio attests to his national prominence. Among other things, he served on the Choral Panel of the National Endowment of the Arts and as dean of the American Guild of Organists. But in Milwaukee, he is best known as the conductor of the chorus of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO). Erickson was appointed associate director of the MSO Chorus in 1978, and he has served as the chorus’s director since 1994. By all accounts, the group has flourished under his leadership. The MSO website quotes music director Edo de Waart as saying: “The MSO has the good fortune of having a first-class volunteer chorus. With a chorus of this caliber, the options for performing great works in the repertoire are immense.” Frequent guest conductor Nicholas McGegan has called the chorus “a real gem,” and Tom Strini of the ThirdCoast Digest referred to it as “the jewel in Milwaukee’s cultural crown.”

If you type Erickson’s name into the Google search box, however, these achievements aren’t among the first results that appear on your screen.

US Treasury and IRS Recognize Same-Sex Marriages for Federal Tax Purposes

Post author:Ryan Gehrke
Post published:August 30, 2013
Post category:Constitutional Law Public Tax Law

accounting-calculator Yesterday the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that legally married same-sex couples will be recognized and treated as married for all federal tax purposes. As long as the couple is legally married it does not matter if they live in a jurisdiction that does not recognize same-sex marriages. The announcement comes just months after the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor, which held that a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violated principles of equal protection under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The ruling gives married same-sex couples the freedom to move throughout the United States without having to worry about federal tax implications. However, the ruling does not apply to couples in domestic partnerships or civil unions.

Yesterday’s “ruling applies to all federal tax provisions where marriage is a factor, including filing status, claiming personal and dependency exemptions, taking the standard deduction, employee benefits, contributing to an IRA, and claiming the earned income tax credit or child tax credit.” IR-2013-72. The ruling is to be applied retroactively so married same-sex couples have the opportunity to file or amend federal tax returns for the 2010, 2011, and 2012 tax years. Before amending returns, couples will want to determine if their combined income will subject them to the “marriage penalty” which could place them in a higher tax rate bracket.

Egypt & the Take Care Clause

Post author:Ryan Scoville
Post published:August 20, 2013
Post category:Constitutional Law International Law & Diplomacy Public

In the course of recent debates over how to respond to the events in Egypt, many have pointed out that the central legal question is whether Section 508 of the Foreign Assistance Act obligates the President to cancel hundreds of millions in U.S. military aid. Reports have now emerged that the Administration has quietly decided to suspend aid on a temporary basis, but without deciding that a coup has occurred. Putting aside the complex policy questions at stake, I want raise a couple of points on the relationship between this decision and the President’s duty under the Take Care Clause, and suggest that the President has a statutory and constitutional obligation to go one step further and cancel military aid, unless Congress passes a new law overriding the current statute.

Here’s what Section 508 says:

None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available pursuant to this Act shall be obligated or expended to finance directly any assistance to any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree: Provided, That assistance may be resumed to such country if the President determines and reports to the Committees on Appropriations that subsequent to the termination of assistance a democratically elected government has taken office.