PACE UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF LAW
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, § 300
Revised Syllabus (Feb. 18, 2014)
Professor Doernberg
Spring Term 2014
CHAPTER 5—PROTECTING FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS
Section 5. The “Right to Die”
Washington v. Glucksberg
692-702
Section 6. Procedural Due Process
A. Introductory Notes on Procedural Due Process
Goldberg v. Kelly
B. Defining “Liberty” and “Property”
Board of Regents v. Roth
C. Defining “What Process Is Due”
Mathews v. Eldridge
703-07
707-08
709-15
715-16
716-21
CHAPTER 6—THE FIRST AMENDMENT
Introductory Note
727-28
Section 1. Free Speech and Competing Values
Note on the Original Understanding of Freedom of Speech
Texas v. Johnson
R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul
Notes on First Amendment Values
United States v. O’Brien
728-29
729-30
730-31
731-35
735-37
737-38
Section 2. Regulation of Political Expression
A. Illegal Advocacy
A Note on Subversive Speech from 1920-1960
Brandenburg v. Ohio
B. Defamation and Other Torts
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.
United States v. Alvarez
Notes on Post-New York Times Developments in Defamation
Law
C. Campaign Expenditures
Notes on McConnell
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
Notes on the First Amendment and Campaign Finance Laws
738
738-39
742
745-48
753
753-56
756-57
757-60
Section 3. Government Policing of Cultural Discourse and Intergroup Relations
A. Sexuality and Gender
Miller v. California
Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton
Notes on Regulating Sexually Explicit Writings and Videos
City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc.
Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc.
City of Erie v. Pap’s A.M.
777-78
778
778-79
779-80
780-81
781
782
782-83
-1-
760-62
764
770-71
771-77
777
B. Fighting Words, Captive Audiences, and Hate Speech
Cohen v. California
1. An Exception for Hate Speech?
Wisconsin v. Mitchell
Note on the Hate Speech Debate
2. Offensive Speech in the Electronic Media
Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation
Note on Sexual Content in Electronic Media
Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association
Notes on Commercial Speech
Section 4. Speech with a Government Nexus
A. Public Forum Doctrine
Ward v. Rock Against Racism
B. Government-Supported Speech
Note on Public Employee Speech
Agency for International Development v. Alliance for
Open Society Int’l, Inc.
783-88
789-90
790-93
794
794-95
795-97
797-801
801-04
804
804-05
808-10
811
811-13
Supp.
29-37
Section 5. Process-Based Protections for Speech
A. Prior Restraints and Permit Systems
Near v. Minnesota
Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham
New York Times Co. v. United States
Madsen v. Women’s Health Center, Inc.
B. (Due Process) Vagueness and the First Amendment
C. (Equal Protection) Overbreadth and the First Amendment
Board of Airport Commissioners v. Jews for Jesus, Inc.
819
819-20
820-21
821
821-23
823
823-25
825-26
826-28
Section 6. Freedom of Association
Christian Legal Society Chapter v. Martinez
828-29
835-37
Section 7. The Religion Clauses
A. Free Exercise
Employment Division v. Smith
Note on the Historical Debate over Smith in the Boerne Opinions
Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. Hialeah
B. The Establishment Clause
1. Basic Premises
Everson v. Board of Education
Wallace v. Jaffree
Notes on Everson, Jaffree, and Establishment Clause Analysis
2. Government Endorsement of Religion
County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union
McCreary County v. ACLU
Notes on the Ten Commandments Controversy
Note on Allegheny County and the Lemon Debate
Notes on the School Prayer Cases
3. Financial Support of Religious Programs
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris
Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (Reprise)
Good News Club v. Milford Central School
Locke v. Davey
837-38
-2-
842-45
846-47
847-48
849-53
853-54
854-55
855-57
857-62
862-64
864
865
867
869-73
873-74
874
875-77
CHAPTER 7—FEDERALISM: CONGRESSIONAL POWER AND STATE AUTHORITY
Section 1.
Enumerated Federal Power, Reserved State Authority:
Introduction
Notes on Constitutional Reasoning in McCulloch: Original
Intent, Constitutional Structure, Representation Reinforcement (Note 1 only at this point)
McCulloch v. Maryland
Notes on Constitutional Reasoning in McCulloch: Original
Intent, Constitutional Structure, Representation Reinforcement (Notes 2-3)
U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton
United States v. Comstock
Notes on Theories of Federal/State Sovereignty and on the Advantages of a Federal Arrangement
Note on the Framers’ Discussions of Congress’s Powers
879-80
890-91
881-90
891-93
893-95
895-96
897-900
901-03
Section 2. Congressional Power Under the Commerce Clause
Problem 7-2: Regulation of Public Accommodations
Gibbons v. Ogden
Notes on Gibbons and Commerce Clause Limits on National Power
Note on the Court’s Search for a Limiting Principle for Congress’s
Commerce Clause Power
Hammer v. Dagenhart (The Child Labor Case)
United States v. Darby
Note on Civil Rights and Federalism
Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States
Katzenbach v. McClung
Note on the Post-New Deal Commerce Clause and the Civil Rights
Decisions
United States v. Lopez
Notes on Lopez and the Commerce Clause’s New Teeth
904
904
904-08
908-11
911-13
913-15
920-23
924-25
925-27
927-28
928-29
929-39
939-40
Section 5. Intergovernmental Immunities and Congressional Power
C. Summing Up Federalism Doctrine: The Affordable Care Act
Case
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sibelius
(to the end of Part III A)
Notes on the Affordable Care Act Case (1-4)
1070-76
1089-91
Section 4. Beyond Commerce and Civil Rights Enforcement Powers
B. Spending Power
South Dakota v. Dole
Notes on Dole and Conditional Federal Spending
United States v. Edith Windsor (Reprise)
1016-17
1018-23
1023-24
49-54
Section 3. Congressional Authority to Promote Civil Rights
A. Congressional Authority Vested by the Reconstruction Amendments
The Civil Rights Cases
Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.
Note on Alfred H. Mayer and Congress’s Thirteenth Amendment Power
Note on the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Katzenbach v. Morgan
Shelby County v. Holder
-3-
Supp.
941-42
942-43
943-50
950-52
Supp.
952
952-54
955-60
39-49
Section 5. Intergovernmental Immunities and Congressional Power
A. State Immunity from Direct National Regulation
Note on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993
City of Boerne v. Flores
Notes on Boerne and Congressional Power to Enforce the Fourteenth Amendment
B. State Immunity from National Commandeering
Printz v. United States
Notes on Printz, Federalism, and Original Meaning
Section 3. Congressional Authority to Promote Civil Rights
C. Congressional Power to Respond to Discrimination Against
Women and to Protect Fundamental Rights
United States v. Morrison
Notes on Morrison and the Values of Federalism
Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sibelius
(Part III B to end)
Section 5. Intergovernmental Immunities and Congressional Power
C. Summing Up Federalism Doctrine: The Affordable Care Act
Case
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sibelius
(Part III B to end)
Notes on the Affordable Care Act Case (5-9)
Section 6. Nationalist Limitations upon State Regulatory Authority
A. Constitutional Principles, Policies, and History
Gibbons v. Ogden (Reprise)
Note on Federalism as a Limit on State Power
Cooley v. Board of Wardens of the Port of Philadelphia
Note on the Evolution of the Dormant Commerce Clause After
Cooley
B. Dormant Commerce Clause Doctrine
1. Discrimination Against Interstate Commerce
City of Philadelphia v. New Jersey
Note on the Post-Philadelphia Waste Cases
United Haulers Ass’n, Inc. v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid
Waste Management Authority
Notes on United Haulers and the Kentucky Bonds Case
2. State Rules Burdening Interstate Commerce
Kassel v. Consolidated Freightways Corp.
Notes on Kassel and Judicial Evaluation of State
Laws Burdening Interstate Commerce
C. Should the Dormant Commerce Clause Be Laid to Rest?
3. The Supremacy Clause and Preemption
Arizona v. United States
-4-
967
968-76
976-78
1044-45
1056-63
1063-65
941-42
991-1001
1001-03
1004-08
1076-89
1076-89
1091-94
1095-96
1096-99
1099-1100
1101
1101-02
1106-08
1108-13
1115-16
1116-19
1119-20
1122-23
1123-31
1131-33
1145-46
1146-57
CHAPTER 8—SEPARATION OF POWERS
Introductory Material
1159-67
Note on Early Interactions Between the Branches of Government,
1790-1798
1171-74
Section 1. Issues of Executive Aggrandizement (Imperial Presidency)
A. The Post-New Deal Framework
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (The Steel Seizure Case)
Note on Frameworks for Thinking About Separation-of-Powers
Issues
B. Foreign Relations and War
United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp.
1. Presidential Authority to Enter Binding Executive Agreements
United States v. Belmont
Dames & Moore v. Regan
2. President’s Commander-in-Chief Authority
C. Executive Privileges and Immunities
United States v. Nixon
Notes on Executive Privileges and the Nixon Tapes Case
Problem 8-3: Executive Privilege and Congressional Investigation of U.S. Attorney Discharges
Note on Congress’s Impeachment Power: The Case of William
Jefferson Clinton
Section 2. Issues of Legislative Overreaching
A. “Excessive” Congressional Delegations and the Article I, Section 7 Structure for Lawmaking
1. The Decline and Potential Revival of the Nondelegation
Doctrine
Mistretta v. United States
Whitman v. American Trucking Ass’ns
Problem 8-4: The Attorney General’s Authority to Preempt
State Aid-in-Dying Laws
2. The Legislative Veto
Notes on Chadha and the Supreme Court’s New Direction
in Separation of Powers Cases
3. The Line-Item Veto
Clinton v. City of New York
B. Congressional and Presidential Power to Control “Executive”
Officials
Myers v. United States
Humphrey’s Executor v. United States
Bowsher v. Synar
Notes on Myers Through Bowsher: The Supreme Court’s Unsteady Path
Morrison v. Olson
Free Enterprise Fund, Inc. v. Public Company Accounting
Note on the Court’s Appointments and Removal Precedents
-5-
1174-75
1175-85
1185-88
1189-90
1190-91
1194
1195
1196-97
1198-1200
1216
1217-22
1222-23
1224-26
1231-33
1233
1234-1235
1235-37
1237-38
1238
1240-41
1241-42
1251-54
1255
1256-63
1263
1264-65
1265
1266-71
1271-73
1275-80
1286-89
1289-90
CHAPTER 9—LIMITS ON THE JUDICIAL POWER
Section 1. The Political Question Doctrine
Luther v. Borden
Colegrove v. Green
Baker v. Carr
Nixon v. United States
1362-63
1363
1365
1366-75
1375-81
Section 2. “Cases” or “Controversies”
Allen v. Wright
Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife
Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Administration
-6-
1386-95
1397-1403
1409-15
1418-24