Constitutional Commentary articles from March 1995

Constitutional Commentary archives from March 1995

Comparing federal courts "paradigms."
March 22, 1995... In a recent article, Professor Michael Wells attacks what I had characterized as "the Hart and Wechsler paradigm" for analysis of Federal Courts issues.(1) To summarize crudely, Wells claims that the Hart & Wechsler paradigm, which we agree...

Free speech and speaker's intent.
March 22, 1995... A few years ago, in an exchange with Cass Sunstein and Frederick Schauer, I criticized efforts to distinguish "high value" and "low value" speech, as the Supreme Court, Sunstein, and others have urged from time to time.(1) Any particular "unit"...

Critics of "free speech" and the uses of the past.
March 22, 1995... INTRODUCTION The idea of a broadly defined right to free speech is under siege. One attack currently comes from those who see the "liberal" idea of free speech as a threat to equality. The topic is complex and charged with emotion. It surfaces...

The passive-aggressive virtues: Cohens v. Virginia and the problematic establishment of judicial power.
March 22, 1995... In his celebrated "Foreword" to the 1961 Harvard Law Review, Alexander Bickel coined the expression "passive virtues" to refer to certain jurisdictional doctrines or judicial "techniques" for "withholding ultimate constitutional judgment."(1)...

Getting normative: the role of natural rights in constitutional adjudication.
March 22, 1995... Our next question must be whether we can reconcile our natural law past with our textualist present--and whether we even want to. --Suzanna Sherry(1) INTRODUCTION: THE NATURAL LAW REVIVAL We are in the midst of a natural law revival. Not...

Defending the Devil: My Story as Ted Bundy's Last Lawyer.
March 22, 1995... By Polly Nelson.(1) New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1994. Pp. 336. $23.00. 1986, a few months after she had joined the distinguished Washington, D.C. law firm of Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering, Polly Nelson, 35 years old and a 1984...

The Supreme Court and Constitutional Theory: 1953-1993.
March 22, 1995... By Ronald Kahn.(1) Lawrence, KS.: University Press of Kansas. 1994. x+ 316 pp. $35.00 Daniel Krislov(2) In this book, Professor Kahn attempts to explain the decisionmaking processes of the Supreme Court of the United States. In doing so, he...