Constitutional Commentary articles from December 1994

Constitutional Commentary archives from December 1994

Poverty and discrimination: notes on 'American Apartheid.' (by Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton)
December 22, 1994... Issues involving race, poverty, and discrimination are the daily fare of constitutional scholars, yet few of us have time to keep up with the social science research on these topics. At erratic intervals, Constitutional Commentary...

The project of the Harvard 'Forewords': a social and intellectual inquiry. (forewords to annual Supreme Court surveys in the Harvard Law Review)
December 22, 1994... Since 1951 the editors of the Harvard Law Review have selected a prominent scholar of constitutional law to write a "Foreword" to the Review's annual survey of the work of the Supreme Court. Within the community of scholars of constitutional...

Hate speech and the Constitution.
December 22, 1994... On June 22, 1992, the United States Supreme Court unanimously struck down a bias-motivated crime ordinance in R.A.V. v. St. Paul, Minnesota,(1) and then on June 11, 1993 it unanimously upheld a penalty enhancement provision for bias-motivated...

The nomination of Justice Brennan: Eisenhower's mistake? A look at the historical record. (Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.)
December 22, 1994... The nomination of William J. Brennan, Jr. in 1956 to be an associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court occupies that familiar place in modern American legal history that is at once both a tangible event and a subject of considerable mythology...

A Deweyan perspective on the economic theory of democracy. (John Dewey)
December 22, 1994... INTRODUCTION The economic theory of democracy, otherwise known as public choice theory, applies the postulates and reasoning of economics to politics and constitutions. "The basic behavioral postulate of public choice, as for economics,...

Busting the Hart & Wechsler paradigm. (Henry Hart and Herbert Wechsler, authors of 1953 casebook 'The Federal Courts and the Federal System')
December 22, 1994... Federal Courts law was once a vibrant area of scholarship and an essential course for intellectually ambitious students. Now its prestige has diminished so much that scholars debate its future in a recent issue of the Vanderbilt Law Review,...

The Interpretable Constitution.
December 22, 1994... By William F. Harris 11.1 Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1993. Pp. xv, 208. Cloth, $38.50. Rebecca L. Brown(2) What exactly is the Constitution? William Harris tantalizes with a promise to take up that question that has...

The Moral Tradition of American Constitutionalism: A Theological Interpretation.
December 22, 1994... H. Jefferson Powell.(1) Durham: Duke University Press. 1993. Pp. ix, 296. $39.00. Jim chen(2) Just as the Gospel reminds Christians that "the last shall be first,"(3) the observation that "less is more" surely does not damn H....

Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress.
December 22, 1994... By Carol M. Swain.(1) Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1993. Pp. xii, 275. Daniel A. Farber(2) For the past twenty years, the federal courts have been vigorously engaged in racial redistricting. Recently, this involvement...

Critical Judicial Nominations and Political Change: The Impact of Clarence Thomas.
December 22, 1994... By Christopher E. Smith.(1) Westpoint, Conn: Praeger. 1993. Pp. xii, 172. $47.95. There is little doubt that changes in the membership of the U.S. Supreme Court have considerable legal and political consequences. The political effects are...

Justice Antonin Scalia and the Supreme Court's Conservative Movement.
December 22, 1994... By Christopher E. Smith. Westport, Conn: Praeger. 1993. Pp. xi, 148. $47.95. There is little doubt that changes in the membership of the U.S. Supreme Court have considerable legal and political consequences. The political effects are obvious...

Liberalism at the Crossroads.
December 22, 1994... By Christopher Wolfe(1) and John Hittinger.(2) Rowman and Littlefield: Lanham, MD. 1994. Pp. ix-183. Paper, $19.95. Michael Zuckert(3) At about the same time that Simon and Garfunkel posed the question "Is the theater really dead?" in...