Constitutional Law Exam 2

All terms, justices, cases, for Con Law Exam 2

Article I

Establishes the legislative branch of the federal government, known as Congress, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. It outlines the powers and structure of Congress, including the process by which laws are made and the powers granted to Congress.

Article II

establishes the executive branch of the federal government. It vests the executive power in the President of the United States, who serves a term of four years alongside the Vice President. This article outlines the procedures for electing the President, the powers and responsibilities of the executive branch, and the process for impeachment

Presentment Clause

found in Article I, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution, outlines the process by which legislation is passed and requires that all bills be presented to the President for approval or veto.

Electoral College

the group of presidential electors that is formed every four years for the sole purpose of voting for the president and vice president in the presidential election.

12th Amendment

Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on June 15, 1804, outlines the procedure for electing the President and Vice President. It established that electors would cast separate ballots for each office, ensuring that the President and Vice President are not from the same state as the electors.

22nd Amendment

limits U.S. presidents to two elected terms in office, established in response to Franklin D. Roosevelt's unprecedented four terms.

25th Amendment

Amendment to the United States Constitution addresses presidential succession and disability, clarifying the procedures for replacing the president or vice president in various situations.

Article I, Section 2

states that the House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States. The Electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature. This section outlines the composition and election process for the House of Representatives, emphasizing the role of the electorate in choosing their representatives.

Article I, Section 3

detailed how senators would be elected, their qualifications, and their powers. However, a large portion was overturned by the Seventeenth Amendment in 1912.

Article II, Section 4

states that the President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Inherent Powers

Unenumerated Powers

Vesting Clause

establishes the executive power of the President, signifying a key element in the separation of powers within the federal government.

Commander in Chief Clause

designates the President as the supreme commander of the armed forces, granting significant military powers while also raising questions about the limits of that authority.

Take Care Clause

states that the President must "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." This clause implies that the President has a duty to ensure that laws are implemented effectively and can be seen as a means of oversight over the executive branch's enforcement of laws.

Stewardship Theory

Associated with Teddy Roosevelt and created by Hamilton. A Pres. Can do anything that is not explicitly forbidden by the Constitution They do have inherit pow. But they can't do whatever they want. "When in doubt, do."

Literalist Theory

Associated it with James Madison and Howard Taft. Presidents only have the power to do the things the Constitution Says it can do along with powers that Congress grants the president Through statutes. No inherit power. "When in doubt, don't."

Imperial Presidency/Prerogative Power

Associated with Richard Nixon. Presidents have extensive inherent powers. They can do things that violate laws of Congress Or the Constitution If the national interest demands it. "If the president does it, that means it's not illegal."

War Powers Resolution

• Requires president To consult with Congress "in every possible instance" prior to introducing US armed forces into hostilities 

• Requires president To report to Congress In 48 hours when, without a declaration of war, US Armed Forces are introduced into hostilities or situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances 

• Requires president To withdraw US troops at the end of 60 days (90 days in certain circumstances) unless Congress Authorizes cont. Involvement by passing a declaration Of war OR some other specific authorization ("Authorization for use of mili. Forces [AUMF]) for cont. US involvement in hostilities 

Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs)

a program of systematic torture of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and various components of the U.S. Armed Forces at remote sites around the world authorized by officials of the George W. Bush administration 

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)

a United States federal law that establishes procedures for the surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence on domestic soil 

Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)

a joint resolution of the United States Congress which became law on September 18, 2001, authorizing the use of the United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the September 11 attacks.  

Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA)

an Act of the United States Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on December 30, 2005. Offered as an amendment to a supplemental defense spending bill, it contains provisions relating to treatment of persons in custody of the Department of Defense, and administration of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Federal Courts not allowed to hear Guantanamo Bay cases. 

Military Commissions Act of 2006(MCA)

an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. The Act's stated purpose was "to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes". 

Combatant Status Review Tribunal(CSRT)

were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as "enemy combatants". 

Habeas Corpus

Found in Article 1, Section 9. A legal procedure that protects individuals from unlawful detention, allowing them to challenge the legality of their imprisonment in court. 

Humphrey's Executor

was a U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled the U.S. Constitution allows Congress to enact laws limiting the ability of the President of the United States to fire the executive officials of an independent agency that is quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial in nature. Might be overturned soon. 

Trump v. Vance

a landmark US Supreme Court case arising from a subpoena issued in August 2019 by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. against Mazars, then-President Donald Trump's accounting firm, for Trump's tax records and related documents, as part of his ongoing investigation into the Stormy Daniels scandal. Trump commenced legal proceedings to prevent their release.

The Court held that Article II and the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution do not categorically preclude or require a heightened standard for the issuance of a state criminal subpoena to a sitting president. The 7–2 decision was issued in July 2020, with Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissenting.

Korematsu v. US

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, fear mounted that an invasion of the west coast was imminent, causing General Dewitt to recommend the evacuation of people of Japanese descent from the west coast. President Roosevelt then signed Executive Order 9066, allowing the Secretary of War to take any possible action against espionage and sabotage, which led to curfews, forced removals, and detention centers. Despite the Supreme Court upholding these measures, Korematsu refused to leave a “military area” and was convicted, and through appeal his case reached the Supreme Court. 

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (The Steel Seizure Case)

During the Korean War, the labor and management of the steel industry were having a wage dispute: the union wanted higher wages and the business argued that higher prices were needed to accommodate (the government feared more inflation). After a strike was called, President Truman signed an executive order instructing Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer to take control of the steel mills and keep them operating. There was no authority for this during peace time (the Korean War was declared “police action”), and although this could’ve been achieved through a court order, Youngstown Sheet and Tube filed a federal complaint to stop Sawyer under the 5^th Amendment which ended up being appealed to the Supreme Court after a preliminary injunction from the district court. 

Zivotofsky v. Kerry

In 2005 Congress included in an apportions bill a provision stating that the capital of Israel was Jerusalem and required passports for US citizens born in Jerusalem identify Israel as their nation of birth despite the US State Department not listing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as this was contested by Jordan. Both the Bush and Obama administrations did not recognize the statute as binding as they stated it interfered with the president’s authority to recognize foreign nations and conduct American diplomacy. The mother of Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky (a US citizen born in Jerusalem) sued the Secretary of state when she applied for a passport as she objected to the state department’s policy which led to a series of lawsuits that affirmed the statute was unconstitutional. 

US v. Nixon

In 1964, a federal grand jury in DC brought charges against the US Attorney general and others, related to the Watergate Affair, with President Nixon listed as a co-conspirator. A district judge issued a subpoena duces tecum ordering the president to release tape recordings and conversations and recordings relevant to the trial, after which Nixon released 43 editing transcripts. The President declined to release other materials and sought quash the subpoena arguing that the controversy could not be heard before the district court as it was nonjusticiable and because any judicial action was precluded by the claim of executive privilege, which the district court denied and this was appealed to the Supreme Court 

Dellums v. Bush

This is a lawsuit brough by certain members of Congress who seek an injunction against President George HW Bush conducting military actions in Iraq without Congressional approval or a declaration of war. After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Bush sent in military forces and conducted a blockade with other nations despite Congress not issuing a declaration of war (An Article 1, Section 8 power). Those members of Congress bringing this lawsuit argue that the president’s actions are unlawful without congressional approval, and war without concurrence would deprive Congress of their voice to which they are entitled under the Constitution. 

Boumediene v. Bush

In 2002 Lakhdar Boumediene and 5 other Algerian natives were arrested on suspicion of terror in Bosnia and detained in Guantanamo Bay, where Boumediene filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause, which was denied on the grounds that he was an alien arrested at an overseas military base. This was reversed by the Supreme Court in Rasul v. Bush, causing Congress to pass the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which eliminated the ability of federal courts to hear habeas applications from aliens deemed as enemy combatants. Boumediene appealed again based on the Suspension Clause, and this was brought all the way to the Supreme Court. 

Trump v. Hawaii

In the first term of President Donald Trump, two executive orders were issued that banned entry into the US by foreign nationals from a list of primarily Muslim states based on the accusation that those states sponsored terrorism. After these orders were upheld and expired in Trump v. URAP, Trump issued Proclamation 9645, which expanded the ban to some other countries on the same basis, though not all these countries were a Muslim majority (For example, North Korea). Hawaii challenged the constitutionality of the second executive order on the basis that it was a Muslim ban in violation of the 1^st Amendment, which caused multiple appeals following a preliminary injunction until it reached the Supreme Court. 

Trump v. US

This case involves questions of a president’s immunity from criminal prosecution stemming from conduct of official acts taken during office, specifically President Donald Trump. Indictments against Trump after the 2020 election stated he conspired to overturn the election by knowingly spreading false claims of election fraud to obstruct the collecting, counting, and certifying of the election results. Trump contends that all the indictment’s allegations fall under official duties and as such he has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for those official duties to ensure that he can undertake the especially sensitive duties of the presidency with haste. 

Black

Wrote Majority Opinion on Korematsu v. US and the Steel Seizure Case

Frankfurter

Concurred on Korematsu v. US

• Constitutional war powers are just as important as peace powers. 

-Therefore, any military order which does not exceed the war powers is constitutional. 

• The Constitution allows violations of war orders to be tried in civil courts. 

• The orders have Congressional and Presidential approval. Those approvals are their business, not the Court’s. 

Concurred on the Steel Seizure Case

• “Rigorous adherence to the narrow scope of the judicial function is especially demanded in controversies that arouse appeals to the Constitution.” 

• “The issue before us can be met, and therefore should be, without attempting to define the President’s powers comprehensively.” 

-We should not lump together or go over past presidential actions, as it only creates confusion for future cases. 

-The Court is only sometimes needed, like in this case, to determine where power lies. 

• Congress has sometimes granted seizure power to the president, but with limits. 

-This shows how drastic of a power they thought it is. 

• With the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, Congress said to the president “You may not seize. Please report to us and ask for seizure power if you think it is needed in a specific situation.” 

Roberts

Dissented on Korematsu v. US

• This case is not like the others. 

• It is about a citizen being punished for refusing to be imprisoned based on his ancestry without an investigation into his loyalty to his country. 

• “I need hardly labor the conclusion that Constitutional rights have been violated.” 

Murphy

Dissented on Korematsu v. US

• The exclusion exceeds constitutional authority and is racist. 

• “It is essential that there be definite limits to military discretion, especially where martial law has not been declared.” 

• Individual rights should not be removed without evidence. The military has provided none. 

-The courts should examine the reasonableness of the military’s claims. 

• There is no relation of this case to the “immediate, imminent, and impending” test that would justify these restrictions. 

• The claimed necessity is based on the actions of a few individuals. 

-Some Germans and Italians also attempted to aid their ancestral land in America. 

-But if individual disloyalty proves group disloyalty, then the constitutional promise that individual guilt is the only things that can lead to a loss of rights. 

• This same logic is used against minorities by dictatorships. 

• This opens the door for future discrimination. 

• No one has been convicted of espionage 

• Also, there are too many people to hold loyalty hearings, along with a lot of them being women and children. 

-This inconvenience can’t justify stripping rights. 

 

Jackson

Dissented on Korematsu v. US

• Korematsu is a citizen. No one is claiming his disloyalty or that he is a law breaker. 

-But he has been convicted of an uncommon crime: Merely being present where he lives. 

-But this is only a crime because of his ancestry. 

• The US is so focused on the Japanese, that a German, Italian, or an American convicted of treason would not be treated in the same way as Korematsu. 

• He is a criminal, unlike others, merely because of his race. 

• Guilt is not inherited from parent to child. It is personal 

-Article III, Sec. 3 

• He couldn’t choose his parents or his race. 

• We can’t expect that the military can control an area or defend the country with the Constitution fully in mind. 

-“He issues orders, and they may have a certain authority as military commands, although they may be very bad as constitutional law. 

• However, the Constitution must not approve of all military action. 

-Even if certain actions were permissible, they are likely not all constitutional. 

• There is no evidence to support the military’s claims, and the court is simply trusting them. 

-This is a trend that will continue 

• Courts can do nothing other than accept what the military says without risking danger during war. 

• This decision is more dangerous than the order itself. 

-The Court has forever validated this racial discrimination by saying that the Constitution allows this order. 

• A military commander exceeding his power is merely an incident, but when a court approves, it becomes part of the Constitution, and it will expand. 

Concurred on the Steel Seizure Case

• Vague presidential powers hold advantages and dangers. 

• Unfortunately, judges often determine a power’s validity only based on what it is currently trying to accomplish. 

• Governing cannot be conducted based on judicial decisions that are based on single clauses or articles without context. 

• Presidential powers can fluctuate as it was the intention of the founders that the practice of governing was intended to disperse powers into a workable government. 

• There are three situations in which a president’s powers can be called into question. 

1.A president’s power is at its highest when an act is pursuant to an expressed or implied authorization by Congress. 

2.His power is in the middle when he doesn’t have the congressional grant or denial but can only rely on his independent powers granted in the Constitution. Sometimes there is a twilight area where the president and congress share powers. 

3.Presidential power is at its lowest when he takes measures expressly denied by Congress. He must rely on his powers minus those Congress has on the matter. Courts can, however, say that sometimes an issue is under exclusive control of the president rather than Congress. 

• This case falls into the third section 

-“This leaves presidential power most vulnerable to attack and in the least favorable possible constitutional postures. 

• “I am quite unimpressed with the argument that we should affirm possession of them without statute.” 

- “I am not alarmed that it would plunge us straightway into dictatorship, but it is at least a step in that wrong direction.” 

• The Court can say Congress has the power in these types of emergencies, but it is up to Congress to act and keep these powers. 

 

Douglas

Concurred on the Steel Seizure Case

• “The legislative nature of the action taken by the President seems to me to be clear. When the United States takes over an industrial plant to settle a labor controversy, it is condemning property. 

-“A permanent taking would amount to a nationalization of the industry. 

-US must thus pay compensation for a temporary seizure. 

• Only Congress has the power to raise revenues. 

-No seizure is lawful without Congressional approval. 

-Congress is the only branch able to give compensation, so they should be the only branch with seizure power under the 5th Amendment. 

Clark

Concurred in Judgement on the Steel Seizure Case. 

Chief Justice Vinson

Dissented on the Steel Seizure Case

Kennedy

Wrote majority opinion on Zivotofsky v. Kerry and Boumediene v. Bush

Concurred on Trump v. Hawaii

Breyer

Concurred on Zivotofsky v. Kerry

• I believe this case presents a political question that the courts can’t resolve. 

• But precedent tells us to resolve it on political question grounds. 

Dissented on Trump v. Hawaii

 

Thomas

Concurred in part and dissented in part on Zivotofsky v. Kerry

Concurred on Trump v. Hawaii and Trump v. US

Chief Justice Roberts

Dissented on Zivotofsky v. US

Dissented on Boumediene v. Bush

Wrote Majority Opinion on Trump v. Hawaii and Trump v. US

 

Scalia

Dissented on Zivotofsky v. Kerry

Dissented on Boumediene v. Bush

 

 

Chief Justice Burger

Wrote Majority Opinion on US v. Nixon

Greene

Wrote Majority Opinion on Dellums v. Bush

Sotomayor

Dissented on Trump v. Hawaii and Trump v. US

Barrett

Concurred in part on Trump v. US

Jackson

Dissented on Trump v US

Article III, Section 3

defines treason against the United States. It states that treason consists only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.

5th Amendment

• The right to be indicted by an impartial Grand Jury before being tried for a federal crime.

• Protection against double jeopardy, meaning one cannot be tried twice for the same offense.

• The right to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination.

• Assurance of due process of law.

The right to just compensation when private property is taken for public use.

Taft-Hartley Act

is a United States federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions

Necessary and Proper Clause

found in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, grants Congress the authority to make laws essential for executing its enumerated powers.

Recognition

A “formal acknowledgement” that a particular “entity possesses the qualifications for statehood” or “that a particular regime is the effective government of a state.”

Naturalization Clause

Found in Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the U.S. Constitution, grants Congress the authority to establish uniform rules for naturalization across the nation.

Receptions Clause

grants the President the exclusive power to receive ambassadors and other public ministers, establishing a key aspect of executive authority in foreign relations.

Watergate

a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. The affair began on June 17, 1972, when members of a group associated with Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign were caught burglarizing and planting listening devices in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington, D.C.'s Watergate complex. Nixon's efforts to conceal his administration's involvement led to an impeachment process and his resignation in August 1974

Article III

establishes the judicial branch of the federal government. It outlines the structure and powers of the judiciary, including the Supreme Court as the highest court in the United States, and any inferior courts that Congress may create. This article defines the jurisdiction of the federal courts and the procedures for trying cases, including the definition of treason.

Article I, Section 8

specifies the expressed powers of Congress.

Article II, Section 1

establishes the executive branch of the government. It states that the executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States, who will hold office for a term of four years, along with a Vice President. This section also outlines the process for electing the President and Vice President, including the appointment of electors by each state

Political Questions Doctrine

a legal principle in United States constitutional law that asserts certain issues are not suitable for judicial review because they are more appropriately resolved by the executive or legislative branches of government.

Suspension Clause

protects the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, allowing for its suspension only in cases of rebellion or invasion when public safety requires it.

Case Or Controversy Clause

requires that actual, conflicting claims must be brought before a federal court for resolution in order for the court to exercise its jurisdiction

Establishment Clause

part of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the government from establishing an official religion or favoring one religion over another.

1st Amendment

part of the Bill of Rights and guarantees several fundamental freedoms, including:

• Freedom of religion: It prohibits Congress from establishing a religion or restricting the free exercise of religion.

• Freedom of speech: It protects the right to express ideas and information without government interference.

• Freedom of the press: It ensures that the press can publish news and opinions without government censorship.

• Right to assemble: It allows people to gather peacefully for demonstrations or protests.

Right to petition: It grants individuals the right to make complaints to or seek assistance from their government without fear of punishment.