Constitutional Law

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39 Terms

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Standing Requirements

  1. Injury

  2. Causation and Redressability

  3. No Third Party Standing

  4. No Generalized Grievances

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Standing: Injury

  • Plaintiff must prove that they have been or imminently will be injured

  • Plaintiff may only assert injuries that they personally have suffered

  • Plaintiffs seeking injunctive or declaratory relief must show a likelihood of future harm

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Standing: Causation and Redressability

Plaintiff must allege and prove that the defendant caused the injury so that a favorable court decision is likely to remedy the injury

  • The injury must be traceable to the challenged government conduct

  • A declaration that the government conduct is illegal or unconstitutional must be capable of eliminating the harm

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Standing: Third Party Standing

  • Close relationship between the plaintiff and the injured third party

  • Injured third party is unlikely to be able to assert their own rights

  • Organizational Standing

    1. Individual members would have standing to sue

    2. Interests are germane to the organization’s purpose

    3. Neither the claim nor the relief requires individuals to participate

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Standing: Generalized Grievances

  • Neither citizenship standing nor taxpayer standing are sufficient

  • Exception: Taxpayers have standing to challenge government expenditures made pursuant to statutes as violating the Establishment Clause

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Ripeness

Issue: Whether a federal court may grant pre-enforcement review

  1. Hardship that will be suffered without pre-enforcement review

  2. Fitness of the issues and the record for judicial review

Ripeness is usually satisfied if the challenger must choose between taking steps to comply with the law or facing possible sanctions for not complying

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Mootness and Exceptions

There must be a live controversy through all stages of the proceeding. If the plaintiff’s injury ends while the lawsuit is pending, the case must be dismissed as moot.

  1. Wrongs Capable of Repetition But Evading Review

  2. Voluntary Cessation: Defendant halts offending conduct but is free to resume it at any time

  3. Class Actions: Class actions will not be dismissed if the named plaintiff’s claim becomes moot as long as one class member has an ongoing injury

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Political Question Doctrine

Federal courts will not adjudicate issues that are (1) constitutionally committed to another branch of government or (2) inherently incapable of judicial resolution

  1. Challenges based on the “Republican Form of Government” Clause

  2. Challenges to the President’s conduct of foreign policy

  3. Challenges to the impeachment and removal process

  4. Challenges to partisan gerrymandering

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Supreme Court Review

  • Writ of Certiorari: Virtually all cases

  • Appeal: Decisions of three-judge federal district courts

  • Original and Exclusive Jurisdiction: Suits between states

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Final Judgment Rule: Supreme Court Review

Generally, the Supreme Court may hear cases only after there has been a final judgment from the highest state court, a federal court of appeals, or a three-judge federal district court

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Adequate and Independent State Grounds

The Supreme Court will not review a state court decision that is supported by an adequate and independent state law ground

  • Adequate: Fully dispositive of the case

  • Independent: Decision is not based on federal interpretations of identical federal provisions

If the state court did not clearly indicate whether its decision rests on state law, the Supreme Court may hear the case

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Eleventh Amendment and Sovereign Immunity

  • 11th Amendment: Bars suits against states in federal court

  • Sovereign Immunity: Bars suits against states in state courts

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Four Exceptions to State Sovereign Immunity

  1. Express waiver

  2. Congress may authorize suits against states under § 5 of the 14th Amendment

    • It must be unmistakably clear that Congress intended to remove the protection

  3. Suits by the federal government and other states

  4. Suits based on the “plan of the convention”

    • Bankruptcy

    • Federal laws adopted based on Congress’s power to raise an army and a navy

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Suits Against State Officers

  • State officers may be sued for personal damages

  • State officers may be sued for injunctive relief, even if this will require prospective payment from the state treasury

  • A suit against a state officer is prohibited by sovereign immunity to the extent that it seek retroactive damages to be paid by the state

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Abstention Doctrines

  • Federal courts may not enjoin pending state court proceedings

  • If state law is unclear and state court clarification of that law could make a federal constitutional ruling unnecessary, the federal court will abstain

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Federal Police Powers

  • Congress has no general police power

  • Congress has police power type powers over:

    • Military bases

    • Indian reservations

    • Federal lands and territories

    • D.C.

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Necessary and Proper Clause

  • Congress has the power to make all laws necessary and proper for executing any power granted to any branch of the federal government

  • Congress may choose any means not prohibited by the Constitution

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Taxing and Spending Power

  • Congress has the power to tax and spend for the general welfare

  • Taxing and spending may be for any public purpose not prohibited by the Constitution

  • Taxes are generally upheld if they bear some reasonable relationship to revenue production or Congress has the power to regulate the activity taxed

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Commerce Power

  1. Channels of interstate commerce (roads, waterways, etc.)

  2. Instrumentalities of interstate commerce (trucks, planes, etc.) and persons or things in interstate commerce

  3. Activities that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce

    • Noneconomic Activity: Cannot be based on cumulative impact

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Regulation of Intrastate Activity Under the Commerce Clause

  • Economic Activity: The court will uphold the regulation if there is a rational basis for concluding that the activity has a substantial affect on interstate commerce in the aggregate

  • Noneconomic Activity: The regulation will only be upheld if Congress can show a direct substantial economic effect on interstate commerce

    • Courts will not aggregate the effects

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Tenth Amendment: Anti-Commandeering Principle

  • Congress cannot compel state regulatory or legislative action

  • Through its spending power, Congress can induce state and local government action by putting conditions on the grant of money that are:

    • Expressly stated

    • Relate to the purpose of the program

    • Not unduly coercive

    • Do not otherwise violate the Constitution

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Congressional Power Under the Fourteenth Amendment

  • § 5 gives Congress power to adopt laws to enforce the 14th Amendment

  • Congress cannot create new rights or expand the scope of rights

  • Congress can only act to prevent or remedy violations of rights already recognized by the courts

  • Laws must be proportionate and congruent to remedying constitutional violations

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Delegation of Legislative Power

  • There is practically no limit on Congress’s ability to delegate legislative power

  • Congress can delegate regulatory authority as long as intelligible standards are set and the power isn’t uniquely confined to Congress (e.g., power to declare war)

  • Major Questions: A federal agency cannot act on a major question of economic or political significance without clear congressional authorization

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Bicameralism and Presentment

  • For Congress to act, there must always be bicameralism and presentment

    • Bicameralism: Passage by both the House and the Senate

    • Presentment: Giving the bill to the President to sign or veto

  • Legislative vetoes are unconstitutional: Congress cannot overturn an executive action without bicameralism and presentment

  • Line-item vetoes are unconstitutional: President cannot veto part of a bill while signing the rest into law

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Delegation of Executive Power

Congress may not delegate executive power to itself of its officers

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Treaties

  • Negotiated by the President and ratified by two-thirds of the Senate

  • Treaties prevail over conflicting state laws

  • If a treaty conflicts with a federal statute, the one adopted last in time controls

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Executive Agreements

  • Effective when signed by the President (Senate approval is not required)

  • Executive agreements prevail over conflicting state laws but never over conflicting federal laws

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Recognition Power

  • The President has the power to recognize foreign governments

  • Congress cannot pass a statute designating the capital of a foreign country

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President’s War Powers

  • Only Congress has the power to declare war

  • The President, as commander-in-chief, has broad powers to use troops without a congressional declaration of war

  • Congress may limit the President by refusing to appropriate money

  • Challenges to the President’s conduct as commander-in-chief are likely to be viewed as nonjusticiable political questions

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Appointment Power

  • The President appoints ambassadors, federal judges, and officers of the United States, with the advice and consent of the Senate

  • Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the President, the heads of departments, or the lower federal courts

  • The President may not make recess appointments (which don’t require Senate approval) during intrasession recesses that are less than 10 days

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Removal Power

  • Unless removal is limited by statute, the President may fire any executive branch officer

  • For Congress to limit removal of an executive officer, the office involved must be one for which independence from the President is desirable

  • Congress cannot prevent removal, but can limit removal to good cause

  • Congress cannot limit the President’s authority to remove a single person who heads an agency and exercises substantial discretion

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Impeachment

  • The President, VP, federal judges, and U.S. officers can be impeached and removed from office for treason, bribery, or high crimes and misdemeanors

  • Impeachment doesn’t remove a person from office (conviction is required)

  • Impeachment by the House of Representatives requires a majority vote

  • Conviction in the Senate requires a 2/3 vote

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Executive Immunity

  • Absolute immunity to civil suits for money damages for actions while in office

  • No immunity for actions that occurred prior to taking office

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Executive Privilege

  • The President has executive privilege over presidential papers and conversations

  • The privilege must yield to other important government interests (e.g., a need for the information in criminal trials)

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President’s Financial Records

  • The President has no special protection when the President’s financial records are subpoenaed by a state grand jury

  • If the financial records are subpoenaed by a congressional committee, the court must balance the competing interests

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Pardon Power

The President has the power to pardon those accused or convicted of federal crimes

  • Pardons cannot be for state crimes or civil liability

  • The pardon power cannot be limited by Congress

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Veto Power

If the President vetoes an act of Congress, the act may still become law if the veto is overridden by a 2/3 vote of each house

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Presidential Powers: Tripartite Framework

  1. If the President acts with the express or implied authority of Congress, the President’s authority is at its maximum and the President’s actions are likely valid

  2. If the President acts where Congress is silent, the action will be upheld unless it usurps the power of another governmental branch or prevents another branch from carrying out its tasks

  3. If the President acts against the express will of Congress, the President has little authority, and the action is likely invalid

    • The President has no power to refuse to spend appropriated funds

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