Articles:
From Constitution to Constitutionalism: A Global Framework for Legitimate Public Power Systems
By Larry Catá Backer. 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 671.
Academic and policy engagements with constitutions and constitutionalism have largely been built around unstated frameworks within which legitimated activity can take place. The essay suggests both the disorientation of much of the discussion and proposes an ideological framework that captures the assumptions about which constitutionalist discourse has evolved. Constitutionalism at one time could be said to involve the study of the peculiarities of the unique domestic constitutional framework through which government was constituted and power institutionalized. No longer. This essay examines the current discourse of constitutionalism . . . [keep reading]
John Leland and James Madison: Religious Influence on the Ratification of the Constitution and on the Proposal of the Bill of Rights
By Mark S. Scarberry. 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 733.
Leland’s self-written Epitaph: “Here lies the body of John Leland, who labored 67 years to promote piety and vindicate the civil and religious rights of all men.” “He played a substantial part in molding [an] American tradition that is full of meaning to all of us today—the separation of church and state in the United States. . . . Much of Leland’s sixty-seven year career as a Baptist evangelist was expended in fighting to remove [religious] disabilities—not only for Baptists but for persons of all faiths, Christian and non-Christian, and even for those who held no recognized religious faith. . . . [H]e was as courageous and resourceful a champion of the rights of conscience as America has produced . . . [keep reading]
The Ethics of Mining for Metadata Outside of Formal Discovery
By Elizabeth W. King. 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 801.
One of the most familiar ethical issues in the practice of law is the conflict between advocating on behalf of a client and maintaining standards of professional ethics. As technology in the practice of law increases, lawyers are facing a greater number of ethical challenges. This paper explores the particular ethical dilemma that is created when, outside of formal discovery, an attorney inadvertently, unknowingly, or unintentionally sends metadata hidden behind an electronic document to another attorney . . . [keep reading]
Playing the Proof Game: Intelligent Design and the Law
By Frank S. Ravitch. 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 841.
Intelligent design advocates argue that excluding intelligent design from educational and scientific environments discriminates in favor of methodological naturalism and against other approaches for understanding natural phenomena. These arguments are flawed both legally and philosophically. In order to succeed ID advocates need to demonstrate that ID is science and that public school classes and scientific institutions are public fora for speech . . . [keep reading]
Comments:
Plurality Rule: Concurring Opinions and a Divided Supreme Court
By Linas E. Ledebur. 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 899.
Justices become binding precedent? What about one signed by three Justices? Can you go so far as to say an opinion signed onto by only a single Justice can be binding precedent? The answer is yes, and many opinions signed onto by less than a majority of the Court are consistently cited by lower courts as precedent. The reasons for this occurrence can be directly attributed to the use of concurring opinions, which has led to a mass of plurality opinions issued by the Court . . . [keep reading]
Praising the Enemy: Could the United States Criminalize the Glorification of Terror Under an Act Similar to the United Kingdom’s Terrorism Act 2006?
By Michael C. Shaughnessy. 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 923.
At 8:50 in the morning on July 7, in a subway car packed with morning commuters on their way to work in a major metropolitan city, a suicide bomber detonates the explosives concealed in his backpack. Across town on another subway car, commuters observe a young man fiddling with his backpack seconds before it explodes, ripping the car to shreds. An instant later, a third explosion rocks yet another subway train, stranding maimed and panicked passengers in between stations. Within two minutes, nearly forty people taking the morning trip to work have been killed and another 600 have been injured . . . [keep reading]