Constitutional Commentary articles from December 1996

Constitutional Commentary archives from December 1996

Is Bill Clinton unconstitutional? The case for President Strom Thurmond.
December 22, 1996... Call off the independent prosecutor! Halt the sexual harassment civil suit! Cancel the congressional investigations! This is bigger than Whitewater, Paula Jones, and Travelgate-Filegate-Hillarygate combined: It appears entirely possible that,...

Originalism and the desegregation decisions - response to Professor McConnell. (response to Michael W. McConnell, Virginia Law Review, vol. 81, p. 947, 1995)
December 22, 1996... In Originalism and the Desegregation Decisions(1) Professor Michael W. McConnell makes a bold effort to justify Brown v. Board of Education(2) in terms of originalist theory. Unlike commentators who have previously dealt with this issue,...

Segregation and the original understanding: a reply to Professor Maltz. (response to article in this issue by Earl M. Maltz, p. 223)
December 22, 1996... In Originalism and the Desegregation Decisions,(1) I relied heavily on the prior work of Professors Earl Maltz and John Harrison, two of the most careful, dispassionate, and learned scholars of the constitutional doctrine of the Fourteenth...

Equality, race discrimination, and the Fourteenth Amendment. (response to Michael W. McConnell, Virginia Law Review, vol. 81, p. 947, 1995)
December 22, 1996... In Job God implies that he, unlike his interlocutor, can catch Leviathan on a hook.(1) Maybe it is presumptuous for mortals to suggest that the actions of government can be disciplined by fine legal distinctions devised by human artifice....

The pariah principle. (U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Romer v. Evans)
December 22, 1996... The Supreme Court's recent decision in Romer v. Evans(1) has caused both joy and consternation. Among legal scholars, however, it has mostly engendered puzzlement. The Court explicitly avoided the most doctrinally plausible grounds for...

Are Smith and Hialeah reconcilable?
December 22, 1996... I In Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, the Supreme Court held that the Free Exercise Clause does not mandate religious exemptions from "generally applicable law."(1) In Smith, the law of general...

Conflicting representations: Lani Guinier and James Madison on electoral systems.
December 22, 1996... Lani Guinier believes "that every citizen has the right to equal legislative influence."(1) For this, she has been assailed as a "Quota Queen" by politically correct conservatives more interested in sowing social discord than in promoting...

The Attorney General's first separation of powers opinion. (includes updated text of Attorney General William Bradford's opinion)
December 22, 1996... The prominence of judicial review in the history of constitutional interpretation in this republic often overshadows the essential and ongoing role of other institutions in the interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. The...

Fighting Words: Individuals, Communities and Liberties of Speech.
December 22, 1996... By Kent Greenawalt.(1) Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 1995. Pp. 189. Hardcover, $29.95. Michael E. Rosman(2) In Fighting Words: Individuals, Communities, and Liberties Of Speech, Kent Greenawalt surveys a number of different...

The Constitiution as Political Structure.
December 22, 1996... Martin Redish.(1) New York: Oxford University Press. 1925. Pp. 229. Hardcover, $39.95. Richard W. Murphy(2) In The Constitution as Political Structure, Professor Martin Redish argues that the Supreme Court has ignored or mangled the...

Executive Privilege: The Dilemma of Secrecy and Democratic Accountability.
December 22, 1996... By Mark J. Rozell.(1) Baltimore, M.D.: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1994. Pp. xiv, 197. Cloth, $45.00; Paper, $14.95. Viet D. Dinh(2) In the foreword to this latest treatment of executive privilege, series editor Michael Nelson writes...

Rethinking Abortion: Equal Choice, the Constitution, and Reproductive Politics.
December 22, 1996... By Mark A. Graber.(1) Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1996. Pp. 244. Hardcover, $24.95. Steven D. Smith(2) Rethinking Abortion is a piece of unapologetic "advocacy scholarship"--with the emphasis on "advocacy." Pronouncing...