Partisan Federalism
Among the questions that vex the federalism literature are why states check the federal government and whether Americans identify with the states as well as the nation. This Article argues that...
View ArticleVoting Rights Law and Policy in Transition
The Voting Rights Amendment Act1 (VRAA), recently introduced in the House by Representatives Sensenbrenner and Conyers and in the Senate by Senator Leahy is a valiant effort to save the Voting Rights...
View ArticleDismissing Deterrence
Last June, in Shelby County v. Holder,1 the Supreme Court scrapped section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act.2 That provision subjected jurisdictions that met specified criteria to the preclearance...
View ArticleCitizens United at Work
Imagine that you are a construction worker for a large, nonunion corporation. One day, your boss tells you that for two months leading up to the next national election, you and several other employees...
View ArticlePuerto Rico Public Corporation Debt Enforcement and Recovery Act
The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is facing the most critical fiscal situation in its history. Its public corporations413×413. The term “public corporations” refers to corporations that are government...
View ArticleIt’s About Time (Place and Manner): Why and How Congress Must Act To Protect...
Introduction In Shelby County v. Holder,286×286. 133 S. Ct. 2612 (2013). the Supreme Court ruled that states and counties that had previously been required to receive federal approval for changes to...
View ArticleWorking Together for an Independent Expenditure: Candidate Assistance with...
Suppose a candidate for Congress attends a fundraising event held by a Super PAC set up specifically to support (and which in practice only supports) that candidate. During the event, the candidate...
View ArticleFavors v. Cuomo
In Reynolds v. Sims,88×88. 377 U.S. 533 (1964). the Supreme Court held that, under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, state legislative districts must comport with a one...
View ArticleArizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission
The Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution provides that “[t]he Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature...
View ArticleUnprecedented? Judicial Confirmation Battles and the Search for a Usable Past
The full text of this Essay can be found by clicking the PDF link to the left. “Unprecedented” is a dirty word — at least in the context of constitutional politics. The claim that some behavior is...
View ArticleEliminating the FEC: The Best Hope for Campaign Finance Regulation?
The Federal Election Commission has an unenviable task. It regulates the financing of federal elections, pursuant to authority64×64. 52 U.S.C. §§ 30106–30109 (Supp. 2016), among other provisions....
View ArticleAct of Sept. 28, 2017
In 1975, the Illinois state legislature enacted the Illinois Abortion Act,1×1. 720 Ill. Comp. Stat. 510/1 (2016). which affirmed the state’s “longstanding policy” that an unborn child is considered a...
View ArticleIndigenous Environmental Network v. Department of State
With a new presidential administration comes a new wave of agency policy changes.1×1. See, e.g., Organized Vill. of Kake v. USDA, 795 F.3d 956, 979–80 (9th Cir. 2015) (en banc) (Smith, J.,...
View ArticleCategorical Mistakes: The Flawed Framework of the Armed Career Criminal Act...
The full text of this Comment may be found by clicking the PDF link to the left. Congress fundamentally changed the punishment of federal crimes in the 1980s and almost entirely for the worse. The...
View ArticleMartin v. City of Boise
When should judges protect the people, and when should they defer to them? In countless contentious cases, courts have split: majorities invalidate laws to defend rights; dissents decry the decisions...
View ArticleTax Limits and the Future of Local Democracy
Property tax limits are state-level laws that place caps on local governments’ tax rates and revenue. These statutory limits, which put pressure on already strapped cities and counties in forty-six...
View ArticleKahler v. Kansas
Imagine two prosecutions for murder. In both, the defendant is mentally ill. In the first, the accused “thought the victim was a dog”; in the second, the accused “thought that a dog ordered him to kill...
View ArticleFavors v. Cuomo
In Reynolds v. Sims, the Supreme Court held that, under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, state legislative districts must comport with a one person–one vote principle: that is,...
View ArticleArizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission
The Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution provides that “[t]he Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature...
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