Note: Turner v. Rogers, the Right to Counsel, and the Deficiencies of Mathews v. Eldridge
By Tom Pryor. Full text here. This Note uses Turner v. Rogers as a case-study to demonstrate how the Court’s procedural due process analysis, as laid out in Mathews v. Eldridge, is deficient. The application of the Eldridge balancing approach can appear arbitrary when its outcomes are compared across similar situations or when analyzed in depth…
Continue ReadingNote: Disrupting the Pickering Balance: First Amendment Protections for Teachers in the Digital Age
By Emily McNee. Full text here. Engaging in speech on Facebook has led teachers to be investigated, suspended, and even fired. The nature of online speech on social networking websites like Facebook presents novel concerns in First Amendment law. As Facebook and other forms of social media have become increasingly popular, teachers have been disciplined and…
Continue ReadingAre State Constitutions Constitutional?
By Timothy M. Tymkovich. Full text here. This Article will examine the history, text, and application of the Guarantee Clause (or Republican Form of Government Clause). It will first examine the historical context in which the Framers enacted Article IV, Section 4. It will then discuss the text and public understanding of the Clause. Then, it…
Continue ReadingWhen Is It OK to Limit Direct Democracy?
By Shaun Bowler. Full text here. There are many commentators and critics who want to limit direct democracy for a variety of reasons. Whatever the reason (chaotic policy making/uninformed voters/exaggerated influence of money, etc.) the end result is the same: initiatives and direct democracy should become harder to use. The difficulty is twofold: first, often the criticisms…
Continue ReadingDirect Democracy and Campaigns Against Minorities
By Todd Donovan. Full text here. I explore some of the indirect effects of holding popular votes on minority rights. This Article examines how direct democracy may expand the scope of conflict over issues of minority rights by allowing campaigns that subject a minority group to public judgment. Campaigns may precipitate messages that treat a minority…
Continue ReadingCampaign Disclosure in Direct Democracy
By Michael Kang. Full text here.
Continue ReadingCampaign Finance in the Hybrid Realm of Recall Elections
By Elizabeth Garrett. Full text here. In the ever-evolving jurisprudence of campaign finance, one principle has endured: the rules governing candidate elections are analyzed differently from the rules governing ballot measures because, according to the courts, the latter elections do not implicate the state’s legitimate interest in combating quid pro quo corruption. It should now be…
Continue ReadingInterpreting Initiatives
By Michael D. Gilbert. Full text here. Judges claim to resolve ambiguities in initiatives by identifying and giving force to “voter intent,” but scholars reject that on the ground that such intent does not exist. This Article argues otherwise. We can understand the search for voter intent to be a search for the majoritarian interpretation. The…
Continue ReadingThe Political Morality of Voting in Direct Democracy
By Michael Serota and Ethan J. Leib. Full text here. The voting levers in candidate elections and in direct democracy elections are identical. The political obligations that bind the citizens that pull them are not. This Essay argues that voters in direct democracy elections, unlike their counterparts in candidate elections, serve as representatives of the people…
Continue ReadingWhen Common Wisdom Is Neither Common nor Wisdom: Exploring Voters’ Limited Use of Endorsements on Three Ballot Measures
By Craig M. Burnett & Mathew D. McCubbins. Full text here. Ballot measures offer voters the opportunity to shape policy decisions directly. It remains unclear, however, if direct democracy asks too much of voters. Do voters have the capacity to make informed decisions on ballot measures that have important and far-reaching policy consequences? The common wisdom…
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