Constitutional Law

Two years ago this weekend the Roberts Supreme Court issued its most controversial ruling to date. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission overturned long-standing campaign finance laws restricting corporate political expenditures, reasoning that the political speech of corporations was as important to the marketplace of ideas as the voices of human citizens. As is well known, denunciations of the opinion, which allowed groups to raise and spend unlimited amounts supporting or opposing candidates, were loud and...

Thanks so much for the analysis of President Obama's constitutional exegesis in support of more gun control [ "In arguing for firearms restrictions, Obama points to Constitution," news story, Jan. 17]. The Post provided an admiring picture of Mr. Obama's effort to "turn a perceived strength of gun advocates — the constitutional right to bear arms — into a potential weakness. " He did this, we read, by claiming that Sikhs in Wisconsin were denied the right to worship freely and that shoppers in Oregon and movie goers in Colorado were deprived of...

On Thursday, Arizona's new abortion law will take effect , outlawing the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy — a much earlier threshold than in any other law that has been upheld in court. Like-minded laws have been enacted in Nebraska, Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Georgia and Louisiana, and a bill similarly limiting abortion in the District drew support Tuesday from a majority of the U.S. House , but not from enough members to pass. These measures differ from previous attempts to prohibit abortion in...

George F. Will ["  ‘Disdain' and democracy, " op-ed, Dec. 30] appeared to understand neither Pamela S. Karlan's thesis in her Harvard Law Review article (which was spot on) nor the proper role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system. That role, in short, is to respect and uphold the reasonable judgments of the democratically elected branches of government except when there is a compelling reason to distrust those judgments. As the Supreme Court has recognized for the past 75 years, such...

The presidential oath of office is required of a new president before he can execute his powers, and the Constitution is clear that its 35 words must be spoken exactly. Which is what makes the oath President Obama took yesterday so interesting. It might be that the more than 1 million spectators didn't actually witness Obama being sworn in. Because of a noticeable gaffe by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Obama transposed the words. He should have said he will "faithfully execute the Office of President of the United...

Richard P. Claude, a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland who taught political science and constitutional law from 1965 until he retired in 1993, died March 17 at the Georgetown, a retirement residence in Washington. He was 76 and had pancreatic cancer. Dr. Claude had been an advocate for human rights since the 1950s, when he participated in sit-ins for civil rights. In 1982, he was the founding editor of Human Rights Quarterly and in 1986 co-founded Physicians for Human Rights, a group that...

The California Supreme Court will uphold Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage passed by the state's voters in November. It is a decision that progressives ought to welcome. It is ordinarily the better part of wisdom not to predict court decisions on the basis of questions asked by judges at oral argument. But the California Supreme Court left little doubt that it would reject the contention of gay rights advocates that it should ignore the results of the ballot initiative that, in effect, reversed the same court's...

I thank The Post Magazine for bringing Anna Ella Carroll's story to a broad audience [" The forgotten heroine? ," July 3]. I would like to address the accusation that the Maryland-born Carroll was a fraud, that is, mainly whether she submitted a Civil War plan to the Lincoln administration that advocated an advance upon the Tennessee River that took place in February 1862. In researching my 2004 book, "Great Necessities: The Life, Times, and Writings of Anna Ella Carroll, 1815-1894," I concluded that Maj. Gen. Henry...

Law professors , Democratic senators and liberal commentators have recently raised a tantalizing possibility for ending the congressional wrangling over raising the federal limit on borrowing: President Obama could simply declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional and be done with it. Advocates of this approach cite the 14th Amendment of the Constitution , which states that the "validity of the public debt of the United States...

Thanks so much for the analysis of President Obama's constitutional exegesis in support of more gun control [ "In arguing for firearms restrictions, Obama points to Constitution," news story, Jan. 17]. The Post provided an admiring picture of Mr. Obama's effort to "turn a perceived strength of gun advocates — the constitutional right to bear arms — into a potential weakness. " He did this, we read, by claiming that Sikhs in Wisconsin were denied the right to worship freely and that shoppers in Oregon and movie goers in...

On Thursday, Arizona's new abortion law will take effect , outlawing the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy — a much earlier threshold than in any other law that has been upheld in court. Like-minded laws have been enacted in Nebraska, Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Georgia and Louisiana, and a bill similarly limiting abortion in the District drew support Tuesday from a majority of the U.S. House , but not from enough members to pass. These measures differ from previous attempts to prohibit abortion in...

Some prominent legal scholars say a series of tactical decisions by President Obama's legal team may have hurt the chances of saving his landmark health-care legislation from being gutted by Supreme Court conservatives. The warnings are a preview of the finger-pointing certain to ensue if the law is overturned . That could come sometime this week, when the justices are expected to decide on the constitutionality of the health-care law and its centerpiece provision...

Chavette Jackson has struggled with a question lately: How can she explain justice and criminal and constitutional law to high school students who wonder why nobody has been charged in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin? Jackson, a second-year law student, teaches juniors and seniors at the District's Dunbar High School about the justice system. Recently, however, she has worried that her students — most of whom are minority teenagers, like Martin — have trouble...

It surprises me that President Obama — who, like me, has taught constitutional law — would err so egregiously in defining "judicial activism" [ "Obama confident Supreme Court will uphold health-care law," news story, April 3]. When the Supreme Court creates new law through a liberal interpretation of the Constitution, that is judicial activism. But when that same court reverses legislation that stretches the Constitution's elastic parameters to the point that they snap, it is doing its job. The difference is...

Two years ago this weekend the Roberts Supreme Court issued its most controversial ruling to date. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission overturned long-standing campaign finance laws restricting corporate political expenditures, reasoning that the political speech of corporations was as important to the marketplace of ideas as the voices of human citizens. As is well known, denunciations of the opinion, which allowed groups to raise and spend unlimited amounts supporting or opposing candidates, were loud and...

The Obama administration is escalating its crackdown on tough immigration laws, with lawyers reviewing four new state statutes to determine whether the federal government will take the extraordinary step of challenging the measures in court. Justice Department lawyers have sued Arizona and Alabama , where a federal judge on Wednesday allowed key parts of that state's immigration law to take effect but blocked other provisions. Federal lawyers are talking to Utah officials about...

In his May 12 op-ed, "McCain's Christian Problem," Robert D. Novak used a single, unnamed source to insinuate that I favor an Obama presidency because it would bring biblical judgment for the country's sins. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mr. Novak's unnamed source is flatly wrong. I have never said, nor do I believe, that electing Barack Obama president is a good idea for any reason, biblical or otherwise. On the contrary, I have every reason to believe that an Obama presidency would be particularly harmful to the American family...

George F. Will ["  ‘Disdain' and democracy, " op-ed, Dec. 30] appeared to understand neither Pamela S. Karlan's thesis in her Harvard Law Review article (which was spot on) nor the proper role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system. That role, in short, is to respect and uphold the reasonable judgments of the democratically elected branches of government except when there is a compelling reason to distrust those judgments. As the Supreme Court has recognized for the past 75 years, such...

Law professors , Democratic senators and liberal commentators have recently raised a tantalizing possibility for ending the congressional wrangling over raising the federal limit on borrowing: President Obama could simply declare the debt ceiling unconstitutional and be done with it. Advocates of this approach cite the 14th Amendment of the Constitution , which states that the "validity of the public debt of the United States...

I thank The Post Magazine for bringing Anna Ella Carroll's story to a broad audience [" The forgotten heroine? ," July 3]. I would like to address the accusation that the Maryland-born Carroll was a fraud, that is, mainly whether she submitted a Civil War plan to the Lincoln administration that advocated an advance upon the Tennessee River that took place in February 1862. In researching my 2004 book, "Great Necessities: The Life, Times, and Writings of Anna Ella Carroll, 1815-1894," I concluded that Maj....