Constitutional

Question 1

Article 3 Judicial Power

Answer 1

Federal courts have judicial power over all cases and controversies

1) arising under the Constitution, federal laws, or treaties
2) admiralty and maritime law
3) in which the US is a party
4) between 2 or more states
5) between a state and citizens of another state
6) between citizens of different states
7) between citizens of the same state claiming land under grants of different states
8) between a state/citizen and foreign states. citizens, subjects.

Question 2

USSC Jurisdiction

Answer 2

ORIGINAL Jurisdiction: in all cases affecting Ambassadors, public Ministers/Consuls, and where a State is a party.

APPELLATE Jurisdiction:
Discretionary Writ of Certiorari may be granted where four justices agree to hear a case based on its lack of constitutionality or where a state violates a federal law, AND all cases from federal courts of appeals.

Mandatory appeals must be taken from 3-judge federal court panels that grant or deny injunctive relief.

Question 3

Ripeness

Answer 3

Ripeness bars consideration of claims BEFORE they have been developed such that there is no harm or immediate threat of harm.

Question 4

Mootness

Answer 4

Mootness bars consideration AFTER claims have been resolved because a real, live controversy must exist at all stages of review. UNLESS the claim is capable of repetition but evading review because the issue concerns events of short duration or where the defendant voluntarily stops but is free to resume the offending practice.

Question 5

Class Actions

Answer 5

A class representative may continue to pursue a class action even where the rep’s controversy has become moot provided claims of other class members remain viable.

Question 6

Standing

Answer 6

Injury
Causation
Redressability

A plaintiff must demonstrate a concrete stake in the outcome of the controversy consisting of an injury in fact caused by the government that will be remedied by a decision in her favor.

Question 7

Third Party Standing

Answer 7

A plaintiff may assert third party rights where he himself has been injured; AND 3 find it difficult to assert their own rights OR plaintiff's injury adversely affects his relationship with 3.

*Can be barred by family law issues.

Question 8

Organizational Standing

Answer 8

An organization has standing to challenge government action that causes injury to the organization itself or injury in fact to its members if

1) the injury in fact would give the members the right to sue on their own behalf;
2) the injury to the members is 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 9

Adequate and Independent State Grounds

Answer 9

The USSC will refuse jurisdiction if it finds adequate and independent nonfederal grounds to support the state decision.

Adequacy requires full disposition of the case.

Independence requires that the state court interpretation cannot be predicated on federal case law.

*Typically, the state court must expressly indicate the decision rests on state law.

Question 10

Abstention

Answer 10

Federal courts should abstain from hearing cases involving an unsettled question of state law and NOT enjoin pending state criminal proceedings. Federal courts should also abstain from state administrative and civil actions involving an important state interest (child abuse, contempt of state court, property rights).

Question 11

Political Question

Answer 11

The USSC will not decide political questions: those Constitutionally committed to another branch of government or inherently incapable of resolution and enforcement by the judicial process.

Question 12

11th Amendment Limitations

Answer 12

Federal courts cannot hear actions against state governments

1) for damages;
2) for injunctive or declaratory relief where the state is a named party
3) where actions against state officers include RETROACTIVE damages payable from the state treasury or quiet title actions that might divest the state of land ownership.

Question 13

Soverign Immunity

Answer 13

Federal courts cannot hear

1) state court claims against a state (even those premised on federal law) unless the state consents;
2) adjudicative actions against states/state agencies before federal administrative agencies.

Question 14

Abrogations Against State Immunity

11th Amendment Exceptions

Answer 14

The USSC may hear actions brought against state OFFICIALS for:

1) injunctions
2) money damages from the officer
3) PROSPECTIVE money damages from the state.

Question 15

11th Amendment Summary

Answer 15

The 11th Amendment prohibits federal courts from hearing claims for damages made against a state (but not state officers) unless:

1) the state consented
2) the plaintiff is the US or another state; or
3) Congress has clearly granted authority to federal courts to hear a specific type of damage action under the 14th Amendment (civil rights).

Question 16

State Action Requirment

Answer 16

Generally, Constitutional protections apply only to federal, state, and local government actions. Constitutional requirements may be imposed on private parties when 1) performing a public function traditionally done by the government; or 2) when private action has significant state involvement.

Question 17

Free Speech

Answer 17

The First Amendment prohibits Congress from abridging the freedom of speech and these prohibitions are applicable to the states through the 14th Amendment.

Question 18

Prior Restraint

Answer 18

A prior restraint must be narrowly tailored to achieve some compelling, or at least significant, government interest and certain procedural safeguards must be provided. Procedural safeguards must also be provided to the persons whose speech is being restrained.

Question 19

Vagueness

Answer 19

A regulation must give persons reasonable notice of what is prohibited.

Question 20

Overbroad

Answer 20

An overbroad regulation punishes a substantial amount of protected speech in relation to its plainly legitimate sweep and is facially invalid.

Question 21

Unfettered Discretion

Answer 21

A regulation cannot give officials broad discretion over speech issues; there must be defined standards for applying the law. Unbridled discretion is facially invalid.

Question 22

Content Based Restrictions

Answer 22

A content based restriction must be narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling government interest unless it falls within an exception.
*EXCEPTIONS:
Inciting Imminent Lawless Action
Fighting Words
Obscenity
Defamatory Speech
(Some) Commercial Speech

Question 23

Obscenity

Answer 23

Obscene speech describes or depicts sexual conduct that, taken as a whole, by the average person:

1) appeals to the prurient interest interest in sex based on a community standard;
2) Is patently offensive and an affront to contemporary community standards; and
3) Lacks serious social value (literary, artistic, political, or scientific) based on a national reasonable person standard.

Question 24

Commercial Speech

Answer 24

Commercial speech that proposes unlawful activity or that is misleading or fraudulent is not protected.

Regulations affecting protected commercial speech will be upheld only if is:

1) serves a substantial government interest;
2) directly advances that interest; and
3) is narrowly tailored to serve that interest.