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billofrights

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Of Arms and Aliens

by  Anjali Motgi  

In December, the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, thrust the Second Amendment into the forefront of national media attention once again. The massacre of schoolchildren by assault rifle reignited a debate among pundits about the meaning of the right to bear arms, but it may surprise many Americans to learn that the Second Amendment continues to…

Volume 66 (2013-2014)

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Anticipating Patentable Subject Matter

by  Dan L. Burk  

The Supreme Court has added to its upcoming docket Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., to consider the question: “Are human genes patentable?” This question implicates patent law’s “products of nature” doctrine, which excludes from patentability naturally occurring materials. The Supreme Court has previously recognized that “anything under the sun that is made…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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School Security Considerations After Newtown

by  Jason P. Nance  

On December 14, 2012, and in the weeks thereafter, our country mourned the deaths of twenty children and six educators who were brutally shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Since that horrific event, parents, educators, and lawmakers have understandably turned their attention to implementing stronger school security measures to prevent…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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How Congress Could Defend DOMA in Court (and Why the BLAG Cannot)

by  Matthew I. Hall  

In one of the most closely watched litigation matters in recent years, the Supreme Court will soon consider Edith Windsor's challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The Court surprised many observers by granting certiorari, not only on the merits of Windsor's equal protection and due process claims, but also on the question whether…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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Forgetting Romer

by  Susannah W. Pollvogt  

What are the implications of the Court’s decision to grant certiorari in Hollingsworth v. Perry? Advocates of marriage equality may worry that the Court granted certiorari to overturn the decision. But they should also worry that the Court accepted certiorari to affirm the decision on the same narrow legal and factual grounds relied upon by…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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Privilege and the Belfast Project

by  Will Havemann  

In 2001, two Irish scholars living in the United States set out to compile the recollections of men and women involved in the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland. The result was the Belfast Project, an oral history project housed at Boston College that collected interviews from many who were personally involved in the violent Northern…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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Software Speech

by  Andrew Tutt  

When is software speech for purposes of the First Amendment? This issue has taken on new life amid recent accusations that Google used its search rankings to harm its competitors. This spring, Eugene Volokh coauthored a white paper explaining why Google’s search results are fully protected speech that lies beyond the reach of the antitrust…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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The Hunt for Noncitizen Voters

by  Fatma Marouf  

Over the past year, states have shown increasing angst about noncitizens registering to vote. Three states—Tennessee, Kansas, and Alabama—have passed new laws requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship in order to register. Arizona was the first state to pass such a requirement, but the Ninth Circuit struck it down in April 2012, finding it incompatible…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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Dahlia v. Rodriguez

A Chance to Overturn Dangerous Precedent
by  Kendall Turner  

In December 2007, Angelo Dahlia, a detective for the City of Burbank, California, allegedly witnessed his fellow police officers using unlawful interrogation tactics. According to Dahlia, these officers beat multiple suspects, squeezed the throat of one suspect, and placed a gun directly under that suspect’s eye. The Burbank Chief of Police seemed to encourage this…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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The Violence Against Women Act and Double Jeopardy in Higher Education

by  Andrew Kloster  

The reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), set to expire this year, has elicited predictable partisan rancor. While there is little chance of the reauthorization being enacted by Congress so close to an election, the Senate draft includes a provision that raises interesting issues for the rights of students involved in sexual assault…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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Pulling the Plug on the Virtual Jury

Why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Should Not Be Tried at Guantanamo Bay by Jurors Sitting in New York City
by  Nicolas L. Martinez  

Most people probably figured that the debate over where to try alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (“KSM”) had ended. Indeed, it has been well over a year since Congress forced Attorney General Eric Holder to reluctantly announce that KSM’s prosecution would be referred to the Department of Defense for trial before a Guantanamo military…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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Politicizing the Supreme Court

by  Eric Hamilton  

To state the obvious, Americans do not trust the federal government, and that includes the Supreme Court. Americans believe politics played “too great a role” in the recent health care cases by a greater than two-to-one margin. Only thirty-seven percent of Americans express more than some confidence in the Supreme Court. Academics continue to debate…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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The Dirty Little Secret of (Estate) Tax Reform

by  Edward J. McCaffery  

Spoiler alert! The dirty little secret of estate tax reform is the same as the dirty little secret about many things that transpire, or fail to transpire, inside the Beltway: it’s all about money. But no, it is not quite what you think. The secret is not that special interests give boatloads of money to…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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Has the Obama Justice Department Reinvigorated Antitrust Enforcement?

by  Daniel A. Crane  

The Justice Department’s recently filed antitrust case against Apple and several major book publishers over e-book pricing, which comes on the heels of the Justice Department’s successful challenge to the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, has contributed to the perception that the Obama Administration is reinvigorating antitrust enforcement from its recent stupor. As a…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

habeas

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Regulating Through Habeas

A Bad Incentive for Bad Lawyers?
by  Doug Lieb  

The most important—and most heavily criticized—provisions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act restricted federal courts’ ability to hear habeas petitions and grant relief to prisoners. But the 1996 law also included another procedural reform, now tucked away in a less-traveled corner of the federal habeas statute. It enables a state to receive fast-track…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

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Discrimination, Preemption, and Arizona’s Immigration Law

A Broader View
by  Lucas Guttentag  

The Supreme Court is expected to decide within days whether Arizona’s controversial immigration enforcement statute, S.B. 1070, is unconstitutional. Arizona’s law is widely condemned because of the discrimination the law will engender. Yet the Court appears intent on relegating questions of racial and ethnic profiling to the back of the bus, as it were. That…

Volume 65 (2012-2013)

money-crisis

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The Money Crisis

How Citizens United Undermines Our Elections and the Supreme Court
by  Russ Feingold  

As we draw closer to the November election, it becomes clearer that this year’s contest, thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, will be financially dominated by big money, including, whether directly or indirectly, big money from the treasuries of corporations of all kinds. Without a significant change in how our campaign finance…

Volume 64 (2011-2012)

aca

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Health Care and Constitutional Chaos

Why the Supreme Court Should Uphold the Affordable Care Act
by  Eric Segall & Aaron E. Carroll  

The Supreme Court’s decision on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will likely be handed down on the last day of this year’s term. If the Court finds that the ACA—either in whole or in part—violates the Constitution, the health care industry will be shaken to its core. And, no matter what legal…

Volume 64 (2011-2012)

dogsniff

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How the War on Drugs Distorts Privacy Law

by  Jane Yakowitz Bambauer  

The U.S. Supreme Court will soon determine whether a trained narcotics dog’s sniff at the front door of a home constitutes a Fourth Amendment search. The case, Florida v. Jardines, has privacy scholars abuzz because it presents two possible shifts in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. First, the Court might expand the physical spaces rationale from Justice…

Volume 64 (2011-2012)

memoriam-best-mode

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In Memoriam Best Mode

by  Lee Petherbridge & Jason Rantanen  

On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed into law the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“AIA” or “Act”). It embodies the most substantial legislative overhaul of patent law and practice in more than half a century. Commentators have begun the sizable task of unearthing and calling attention to the many effects the Act may have on…

Volume 64 (2011-2012)