ConLaw Final Tests

Question 1

Ripeness test (Pre-enforcement)

Answer 1

Injury to the plaintiff must be imminent or certain, the court must have all of the facts it needs to make a decision, and delaying adjudication would result in harm to the plaintiff through compliance and noncompliance

Question 2

Mootness test

Answer 2

The matter in controversy has been resolved and there is nothing left for the court to do. Exceptions for voluntary cessation and CRYER

Question 3

CRYER exception to Mootness

Answer 3

Capable of Repetition Yet Evading Review. Likely to reoccur between the same parties and resolve before litigation finishes

Question 4

Voluntary cessation exception to mootness

Answer 4

D must show that it is absolutely clear it cannot resume the allegedly injurious activity

Question 5

Standing

Answer 5

Plaintiff has suffered a concrete injury or will almost certainly and imminently suffer one, the defendant’s conduct is fairly traceable to the plaintiff’s injury, and the court is able to offer some redress to the plaintiff

Question 6

Political Question test

Answer 6

there is a textually demonstrable commitment of the issue to a coordinate political department; or there is a lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standards to resolve it; or it would be impossible to decide the issue without an initial policy determination of a kind clearly unfit for judicial discretion; or the court cannot undertake independent resolution without expressing a lack of respect due to coordinate branches of government; or there is an unusual need for an unquestioning adherence to a political decision that has already been made; or there is potential for embarrassment from multifarious pronouncements by various departments on a single question

Question 7

Commerce Clause test

Answer 7

Congress is regulating a channel of ISC; an instrument of ISC or a person or thing in ISC; or an activity with a substantial effect on ISC

Question 8

10th amendment test

Answer 8

Congress is commandeering state officials by compelling certain action or inaction from legislatures or compelling action by executive officers

Question 9

Spending Clause

Answer 9

Congress is spending the money in pursuit of the general welfare, Congress has conditioned funds to states on unambiguous terms such that a state can knowingly accept or reject the funds, the funds are related to a federal interest in national projects or programs, no other constitutional principles are violated, and the amount of funding conditioned is not so large as to become coercive

Question 10

Necessary and Proper Clause

Answer 10

The provision is derivative of, subservient to, or predicated on a greater legitimate power, and the goal of the act is legitimate and the means in the provision are plainly adapted to that goal

Question 11

14th Amendment Enforcement Power

Answer 11

Regulating the government rather than an individual, and Congress has enacted a statute that is congruent with and proportional to the perceived injury to the SCOTUS-recognized constitutional right. Congress can legislate prophylactically

Question 12

Presidential Zones of Power

Answer 12

If Congressional approval, the action is impermissible only if the government as a whole lacks authority. If Congress is silent, the Court weighs factors such as functionality, separation of powers, national security, etc. If Congress disapproves, then the action is permissible only if authority on the matter is vested in the President alone

Question 13

Suits against the president

Answer 13

The President does not have immunity from criminal suits or civil suits that do not arise out of his conduct in office within the outer perimeter of his responsibilities

Question 14

Administrative Agencies

Answer 14

Congress is delegating power to an agency with an intelligible principle that provides a general purpose and limits of authority. If an agency is using a power in a new way with important sociopolitical or economic ramifications, Congress must have clearly intended to delegate that particular use of power to the agency

Question 15

Appointment or removal

Answer 15

the President alone can appoint officials with the advice and consent of the Senate, and the President has discretionary removal power unless the person is an inferior officer or the agency is one with quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions that needs to be independent

Question 16

Kinds of preemption

Answer 16

Express, conflict, field, and obstacle

Question 17

Conflict preemption

Answer 17

it is impossible/impracticable to comply with both the state and federal statutes; there is a direct conflict

Question 18

Field preemption

Answer 18

Congress has legislated a subject so thoroughly and comprehensively that it is clear it intends to occupy the field and leave no room for states to regulate

Question 19

Obstacle preemption

Answer 19

the state statute interferes with the accomplishment or enforcement of a federal statute

Question 20

Dormant Commerce Clause

Answer 20

If a statute is facially discriminatory or has a discriminatory purpose or effect, it is only permissible if it serves a legitimate state interest that cannot be protected through less discriminatory means. If the statute incidentally burdens ISC, then it is permissible unless the burden imposed on ISC is clearly excessive in relation to the putative local benefits

Question 21

Privileges and Immunities Clause

Answer 21

States cannot discriminate against OOS citizens in a way that impairs a right fundamental to interstate harmony unless it is substantially related to a substantial state interest

Question 22

DCC Exceptions

Answer 22

Congressional approval and Market Participant

Question 23

Contracts Clause

Answer 23

A state substantially interferes with an existing contract if the industry has not been subject to extensive prior regulation, the interference undermines the contractual bargain, it interferes with reasonable expectations when the contract was created, or it prevents a party from safeguarding or reinstating his rights. If there is substantial interference, it is permissible only if it serves a significant and legitimate public interest and the nature of the impairment is reasonable in relation to this purpose. States interfering with their own contracts are subject to strict scrutiny

Question 24

Determining Fundamental Rights for SDP

Answer 24

A history of protection or recognition of the right, the right is one of the penumbral emanations from Constitutional rights, the right is central to decisions of personal dignity and autonomy

Question 25

SDP standard of review for fundamental rights

Answer 25

the statute must be narrowly-tailored to a compelling government interest

Question 26

SDP standard of review for non-fundamental rights

Answer 26

The statute must be rationally related to a legitimate state interest

Question 27

Recognized fundamental rights under SDP

Answer 27

family autonomy, marriage including homosexual and interracial, intimate relations

Question 28

Stare decisis non-Dobbs

Answer 28

Can overturn precedent if the standard is not workable or employable by lower courts, has been eroded or was a recent outlier, people don’t significantly rely on the precedent such that reversing it would substantially affect their lives, the decision is poorly reasoned

Question 29

Stare decisis Dobbs

Answer 29

the nature of the error, the quality of the reasoning, the workability of the rules, a disuptive effect on other areas of law, a lack of concrete reliance