Constituional Law (Federal)

Question 1

Sources of Law

Answer 1

U.S. Constitution - Articles and Amendments

Question 2

Exam Approach: Main Topics

Answer 2

1. Powers
2. Federalism
3. Individual Rights

Question 3

Exam Approach: Question Work Through (MBE)

Answer 3

1. Who are the parties: Who is taking action against whom?
2. What is being effected?
   - authority of the government
   - constitutionality of government action
3. How is the problem resolved - narrowing the issue
   - Can the actor do what they are doing
   - how is the right infringed AND how does the constitution impact this infringement

Question 4

Source of Judicial Power

Answer 4

Article III - federal courts have power over all “cases and controversies”

Question 5

Cases and Controversies Asks:

Answer 5

Is the issue justiciable? There has to be an actual issue for the courts to resolve that affects the parties bringing the suit.

Question 6

Advisory Opinions

Answer 6

No advisory opinions allowed - but declaratory decisions are ok - assuming C&C requirements are met (i.e. there is an actual dispute to resolve)

Question 7

Three Requirements for there to be a “Case and Controversy”

Answer 7

The issue must be:

1. Ripe
2. Not Moot
3. The parties must have standing to sue

Question 8

Ripeness

Answer 8

Has the dispute matured sufficiently to warrant a decision?
To show ripeness:
1. Is the issue FIT for judicial decision (meaning it does not rely on uncertain or contingent future events that might not occur)
2. Hardship to the Parties (π has to show risk of substantial hardship to provoke)

Question 9

Mootness

Answer 9

Is the case and controversey at all stages of review - there must be suffering from an ongoing injury

Question 10

Exceptions to Mootness

Answer 10

1. Controversies capable of repetition but that evade review because of their inherently short duration (i.e. abortion, elections, divorce actions)
2. ∆ voluntarily stops the offending practice but is free to resume at any time
3. Class actions in which the class representative’s controversy has become moot BUT the claim of at least one other member is still viable

Question 11

Mootness v. Ripeness

Answer 11

Mootness bars consideration AFTER an issue has been resolved
Ripeness bars consideration BEFORE a claim has developed

Question 12

Standing

Answer 12

A person has standing when they can demonstrate a concrete stake in the outcome of the controversy

Which Party has to have standing: the party challenging the action

Question 13

Components of Standing

Answer 13

1. Injury in Fact - requires both a particularized injury (an injury that affects the π in a personal and individual way) AND a concrete injury (one that exists in fact)

It is not enough to just show that a federal statute or constitutional provision has been violated

An injury does not need to be economic in nature

2. Causation - there must be a causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of - the injury must be traceable to the challenged conduct o the defendant and not be attributable to an independent third party not before the court
3. Redressability - would a ruling in a litigant’s favor eliminate the harm
4. Required at all stages - standing must be met at all stages of litigation, including on appeal

Question 14

Congressional Conferral of Standing

Answer 14

Congress cannot completely eliminate a C&C requirement because it’s based on the constitutional grant of power

But, federal statute can create new interests, injury to which may be sufficient for standing

Question 15

Standing to Enforce Government Statutes - Zone of Interest

Answer 15

A plaintiff may sometimes bring suit to force government actors to conform their conduct to the requirements of a specific federal statute
- For injury in fact, ask whether the injury caused to the individual or group seeking to enforce the statute is within the “zone of interest” that Congress meant to protect with the statute. If so, the court is likely to grant standing to those persons

Question 16

Standing to Assert the Rights of Others

Answer 16

May Assert Third-Party Rights where they themselves have suffered injury AND:

1. Third parties find it difficult to assert their own rights OR
2. The injury suffered by the π adversely affects his relationship with third parties (resulting in an indirect violation of their rights - think Craig v. Boren male v. female age to purchase beer)

Question 17

Standing Of Organizations

Answer 17

An organization has standing to challenge an action that causes injury to the organization itself

An organization also has standing to challenge actions that cause an injury in fact to its members if the organization can demonstrate:

1. that there is an injury in fact to the members that would give individuals the right to sue on their own behalf
2. The injury to the members must be related to the organization’s purpose; and
3. Neither the nature of the claim nor the relief requested requires participation of the individual members

Question 18

No Citizenship Standing

Answer 18

People have no standing merely as citizens to claim that government action violates federal law or the constitution.

BUT - a person can have standing to allege that federal action violates the 10th A by interfering with the powers reserved to the states

Question 19

Taxpayer Standing

Answer 19

Generally: No Standing to litigate government expenditures - the interest is too remote

Question 20

Taxpayer Standing Exception

Answer 20

Congressional Measures Under Taxing And Spending Power that Violate Establishment Clause - If a person can show

1. the measure was enacted under Congress’s taxing and spending power and
2. the measure exceeds some specific limitation on the power

Question 21

Adequate and Independent State Grounds

Answer 21

The Supreme Court will hear a case from a state court ONLY IF the state court judgment turned on federal grounds. The Court will refuse jurisdiction if it finds adequate and independent nonfederal grounds to support the decision

1. Adequate: fully dispositive of the case, so that even if the federal grounds are wrongly decided, it would not affect the outcome of the case (the Supreme Court’s review of the decision would then have no effect on the judgment rendered by the state court - in effect would be rendering an advisory opinion)
2. Independent: if state court’s interpretation of its state provision was based on federal case law interpreting an identifical federal provision, the state law grounds for the decision are not independent

Question 22

Abstention

Answer 22

Unsettled Question of State Law: federal court wil abstain so as to give the state courts time to settle the underlying state law questions

Pending State Proceedings: generally will not enjoin pending stte criminal proceedings

1. Pending - begun before the federal court begins proceedings on the merits
2. Federal courts should abstain from enjoining pending state administrative or civil proceedings when the proceedings involve an important state interest
3. Exectpion - cases of prooved harassment or prosecutions taken in bad faith

Question 23

Political Questions

Answer 23

The court will not decide political questions - these are issues:

1. constitutionally committed to another branch of governemnt (i.e. the president’s conduct of foreign policy)
2. inherently incapable of judicial resolution

Question 24

Sovereign Immunity and the Eleventh Amendment

Answer 24

11th A prohibits a federal court from hearing a private party’s or foreign government’s claims against a state government

Exception: State consents (think tort claims acts), actions against local government, actions by the United States or other states, proceedings in federal bankruptcy courts, actions against state officers for injunctions, Actions against state officers for monetary damages from officer directly, actions against state officers for prospective payments from state

Question 25

Removal of Immunity under the 14th Amendment

Answer 25

Congress can remove a state’s immunity as to actions created under the Fourteenth Amendment power to prevent discrimination, but it must be unmistakenly clear that congress intended to remove immunity (i.e. state employee’s sue state over Equal Pay Act violation)

Question 26

Legislative Power: General

Answer 26

Power of the legislature is derived from Article I of the constitution - most of the powers are enumerated in Article I, Section 8. Congress also has auxillary power under the Necessary and Proper Clause

Question 27

Necessary and Proper

Answer 27

Congress has the power to make all laws necessary and proper (appropriate or rational) to carry out any of the legislative powers enumerated in Art. 1 as long as that law does not violate another provision of the constitution

NP Clause standing alone can’t support federal law, it must work in conjunction with another federal power (note an answer choice that says “it is valid under the necessary and proper calise” without link to another federal power in the question will be invalid)

Question 28

Federal Police Power

Answer 28

There is no federal police power generally

However, Congress has police power over the District of Columbia, federal lands, and reservations (based on its power over the capital and its property power)

Question 29

Taxing and Spending Power

Answer 29

Congress has the power to tax and spend to provide for the general welfare - may be for any public purpose not prohibited bythe constitution

Question 30

Taxing Power

Answer 30

Congress has the power to lay and collect taxes, imposts, and excises, but they must be uniform throughout the U.S. Capitation or other direct taxes must be laid in proportion to the census and direct tazes must be apportioned among the states

Taxes are generally valid - absent a specific restriction a tax measure will be upheld if it bears some reasonable relationship to the revenue production or if Congress has the power to regulate the taxes activity

No impermissibly regulatory penalties - seeking to compel rather than just influence behavior

Question 31

Spending Power

Answer 31

Congress may spend to provide for the common defense and general welfare - FOR ANY PUBLIC PURPOSE

Congress can condition the grant of money to state or local governments if such strings are

1. clearly stated
2. relate to the purpose of the program
3. are not unduly coervice, and
4. do not otherwise violate the constitution

Think drinking age cases

Note unduly coresive standard is hard to meet and has really only been met in the ACA Case

Question 32

Commerce Power

Answer 32

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3

Empowers Congress to “regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with Native Tribes”

Question 33

Definition of Commerce

Answer 33

Includes basically all activity affecting two or more states

Includes transportation or Traffic

Regulate the channels, instrumentalities, and activities that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce (think Wickard and the wheat)