Constitutional cases, foreign law and theoretical authority

Public Consensus as Constitutional Authority

Barry Friedman's new book The Will of the People attempts to dissolve constitutional law's countermajoritarian difficulty by showing that, in practice, the Supreme Court does only what the public will tolerate. His account succeeds if "the countermajoritarian difficulty" refers to the threat that courts will run the country in ways that contravene majority preference, but not if the "the counte...

Constitutional Law

Constitutional Law: Parole Status

In Rose v. Haskins,' the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reiterated the orthodox view that since a prisoner parole system is not constitutionally compelled, parole status is merely a "privilege" regulated by statute and not circumscribed by either the specific constitutional guarantees applicable to a criminal proceeding nor the traditional safeguards of procedural due process. However, ...

Constitutional Law: Increased Sentence

Ensuring Constitutional Authority: Continuity of Government

______________ 1See Appendix A for a list of the Department of Defense Directives (DoDDs) relevant to continuity of government activities. 2See Federation of American Scientists, 1999a. Press interest in federal COG programs increased after the cold war. See Emerson (1989) and Gup (1991, 1992). 3Article IV, Section 4, of the Constitution seems to provide the constitutional authority for milita...