Constitutional Law Outline
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Constitutional law Outline
7 Sources- know all and have a separate and distinct case for each
1. Stare decisis (basic)
Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida-
ct overruled Pennsylvania v. Union Gas Co., 491 U.S. 1, 105 L. Ed. 2d 1 (1989), wherein the Court found that the Interstate Commerce Clause, Art. I, Ч 8, cl. 3, granted Congress the power to abrogate state sovereign immunity, stating that the power to regulate interstate commerce would be incomplete without the authority to render states liable in damages.
Generally, the principle of stare decisis, and the interests that it serves, viz., the evenhanded, predictable, and consistent development of legal principles, reliance on judicial decisions, and the actual and perceived integrity of the judicial process, counsel strongly against reconsideration of precedent.
However, when governing decisions are unworkable or are badly reasoned, the Court has never felt constrained to follow precedent.
2. Text (supremacy clause, cant deny habeas
corpus, etc)-
Prinz case. Even where Congress has authority under Constitution to pass laws requiring or prohibiting certain acts, Necessary and Proper Clause does not grant Congress power directly to compel states to require or prohibit those acts.
Residual state sovereignty is implicit in the Constitutions conferral upon Congress of not all governmental powers, but only discrete, enumerated ones,
U.S. Const. art. I, Ч 8, (Congressional power including the commerce clause) which implication was rendered express by the U.S. Const. amend. Xs assertion that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
The federal government may not compel the states to implement, by legislation or executive action, federal regulatory programs
3. Consequences into the future of a holding in ruling one way or another
Woods v. Cloyd W. Miller Co.- gave authority to Congress to regulate rent under the war powers after the end of the war because the effects of the war effort extends beyond the mere formal declaration or proclamation ending the war.
A1,S8- Congress has the power to declare war, to maintain an army and navy. A1,S8,C19 To make laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers.
When war is officially terminated the war power does not necessarily end with the cessation of hostilities. The Act enables the management of the deficit in the housing caused by the mobilization of the war effort. Congress has the power to act to control the forces that a short supply of the needed article created.
if the war power ended at the cessation of fighting, the N & P clause would be meaningless in the future.
4. Original intent of the framers
Nixon v. US-
“Try” in the first sentence of the Act lacks sufficient precision to afford any judicially manageable standard of review of the Senates actions is fortified by the existence of the three very specific requirements that the constitution does impose on the Senate when trying impeachments:
members must be under oath
a two thirds vote is required to convict
the chief justice presides when the president is tried
these limitations are very specific and suggests that the framers did not intend to impose additional limitations.
The framers recognized that most likely there would be two sets of proceeding for individuals who commit impeachment offenses: the impeachment trial and the criminal trial. Needed to insure independent judgment.
5. Structural arguments (look at all the institutions constitution creates, if it has all of these institutions it must mean that this is the interpretation)
Curtiss-Wright. Internal sovereignty is different from external sovereignty.
if it involves foreign affairs there is a govt of unlimited powers vs. domestic affairs and a govt of limited powers.
definition of sovereignty- “Because I said so.”
foreign affairs are different than internal.
Even if the power wasnt there in the text, the power is still there.
Curtis Wright suggested that it is a government of UNLIMITED powers in the foreign realm. And that the text doesnt matter, its irrelevant.
6. Looks to the practices of the other branches of government to help it understand what it means
McCullough case- Marshall immediately mentions this being the 2nd bank in the case, thus, he recognizes that other officials acted in a relevant context.
7. Logic (pure and simple)
Chada case- legislative act, didnt go to both houses, no bicameralism, hence it is unconstitutional.
Provisions of the Federalist papers
10 (definition of faction),
essentialness of controversy and conflict in a free society
51 (“if men were angels. It puts the law in context and suggests that the founders had a concrete/specific view of human nature),
37 -Madison sets forth three reasons why there is always a need for lawyers, why interpretation is always necessary in dealing with the text, he said its because:
nature is very complicated,
and our mechanisms of perceiving reality are flawed,
and language of its very nature is limited
Marbury v. Madison
Established the authority for the judiciary to review the constitutionality