Albany Law Review articles from August 1997

Albany Law Review archives from August 1997

A liberal theocracy: philosophy, theology, and Utah constitutional law.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... I. INTRODUCTION The territory, and later the state, that became known as Utah was dominated by a religious community that had been persecuted for its beliefs and practices. Many observers understandably might expect that the Utah...

Term limits, the state courts, and national dominion: the vicissitudes of American federalism.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... Introductory Note and Retrospective Disillusionment with the political process, brought on in part by extravagant perquisites and their abuse by public officials, has led to persistent calls for reform. The "powers of incumbency," it is...

Does an Equal Rights Amendment make a difference? (Texas)(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... Because the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the United States Constitution was never ratified, one cannot know what its impact might have been. At the state level, however, the consequences of a constitutional gender equality...

"Rights talk" about privacy in state courts.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... I. Introduction The constitutional right to privacy remains one of the most controversial areas of civil liberties. There are procedural objections to the way privacy was "read into" the United States (U.S.) Constitution by liberal...

Narrative and jurisprudence in state courts: the example of constitutional challenges to sex conduct regulation.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... Success in these matters is as mathematicians would say, a function of the advance we have made in civilization.... We must not expect too much from formal changes; we may put our finger on this or on that which may be amended,...

You can't get there from here: the impact of California's Proposition 209 on same-sex marriage.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... On Tuesday, November 5, 1996 California voters amended their state constitution by approving Proposition 209, sometimes referred to as the California Civil Rights Initiative or CCRI. The vote tally was 54.6% - 45.4%, a margin of nearly 900,000...

Interpreting the "sexual contract" in Pennsylvania: the motivations and legacy of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Robert A. Berkowitz.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... Commonwealth v. Berkowitz,(1) the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's 1994 ruling affirming the reversal of a 1992 rape conviction, drew considerable attention toward the broader and continuing controversy surrounding the legislative drafting and...

Of elephants, donkeys, and black sheep in their midst: state action doctrine thwarts Log Cabin Republicans' bid to gain a place in GOP's tent. (Texas)(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... Is a political party free to exclude groups and causes it does not want within its fold? In a recent decision, the Texas Supreme Court held that the exclusion of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of gay and lesbian Republicans seeking...

Chi lascia la via vecchia per la nuova sa quel che perde e non sa quel che trova: the Italian-American experience and its influence on the judicial philosophies of Justice Antonin Scalia, Judge Joseph Bellacosa, and Judge Vito Titone.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... I. Introduction In trying to describe how judges decide cases, the renowned Supreme Court Justice and New York Chief Judge Benjamin Cardozo once observed, "[w]e may try to see things as objectively as we please. None the less [sic], we...

The Supreme Court of Alaska: unique and independent like the people of the last frontier.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... I. Introduction Is the Alaska Supreme Court "`a north star that could guide other courts?'"(1) Some have suggested that with its independent approach to state constitutional adjudication, the supreme court of the "Last Frontier" is...

State constitutional law in the land of steady habits: Chief Justice Ellen A. Peters and the Connecticut Supreme Court.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... Introduction Over her nearly two decades on Connecticut's high court, former Chief Justice Ellen Ash Peters(1) has earned respect as a scholarly jurist(2) and an innovative administrator.(3) Citing a desire to write more opinions,...

The Green Mountain boys still love their freedom: criminal jurisprudence of the Vermont Supreme Court.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... I. Introduction This Comment is a decision making profile of the Vermont Supreme Court in state constitutional criminal cases. This Comment considers constitutional criminal decisions rendered over the past. decade which reveal the...

A case of good intentions: the Vermont Supreme Court and state constitutional protection of civil rights and liberties.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... The mere mention of Vermont conjures up images of a rocky and rugged state inhabited by people no less rugged and independent. In light of these character traits, both of the state and its people, it should come as no surprise that the state's...

State constitutional criminal adjudication in Washington since State v. Gunwall: "articulable, reasonable and reasoned" approach?(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)
August 6, 1997... Recourse to our state constitution as an independent source for recognizing and protecting the individual rights of our citizens must spring not from pure intuition, but from a process that is at once articulable, reasonable and...

A cause of action for damages under the state constitution.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)(Case Note)
August 6, 1997... "When the law immunizes official violations of substantive rules because the cost or bother of doing otherwise is too great, thereby leaving victims without any realistic remedy, the integrity of the rules and their underlying public values are...

Prosecutorial discretion in charging the death penalty: opening the doors to arbitrary decisionmaking in New York capital cases.(State Constitutional Commentary: An Interdisciplinary Examination of State Courts, State Constitutional Law, and State Constitutional Adjudication)(Case Note)
August 6, 1997... "The calculated killing of a human being by the State involves, by its very nature, a denial of the executed person's humanity."(1) Introduction On March 7, 1995, New York Governor George Pataki signed a death penalty bill that was...