Constitutional law

Question 1

13th amendment exceptions

Answer 1

1) Punishment for a crime, 2) military draft, 3) community service requirement to graduate high school

Question 2

“Involuntary servitude”

Answer 2

Compelled to work by use of force, threat of force, or threat of legal coercion

Question 3

Deprivation of liberty

Answer 3

Freedom from bodily restraints, physical punishment, or commitment to a mental institution

Question 4

How to tell what type of process is due?

Answer 4

Balancing test: weigh:

(1) the private interest affected;

(2) the risk of erroneous deprivation and the probable value of additional procedures; and

(3) the government’s interest in streamlined procedures.

Question 5

Intermediate scrutiny

Answer 5

Interest: important

Means: Substantially related

Burden: government

Question 6

Standing: ConLaw

Answer 6

Requires

1) Injury in fact

2) Causation

3) redressability – P must show that they’ll benefit from remedy sought

Third party standing:
1) Victim is unlikely or unable to bring claim themselves

2) Special relationship to victim

Question 7

Procedural due process

Answer 7

Right to life, liberty, and property. Source: 14th amendment (state), 5th amendment (fed)

Question 8

Substantive due process

Answer 8

Rights that are not explicit, but which are intrinsic to our “structure of ordered liberty” or rooted in our “history and tradition”. Source: 14th amendment (state), 5th amendment (fed)

Incl.:
-Travel
-Vote
-Marry
-Contraception
-Run for office
-Privately educate kids
-Refuse medical treatment
-Possess obscene material at home

Question 9

Right to liberty

Answer 9

Freedom from bodily restraint and physical punishment

Question 10

Right to property

Answer 10

Property interest, incl:

-Public education
-Driver’s license
-Public employment IF employee is under tenure system or understanding (explicit or implicit) that they’ll only be fired for cause

Question 11

Regulatory taking

Answer 11

Balance:
1) economic impact of reg on proeprty owner
2) physical impact of reg on property owner
3) duration of invasion
4) character/nature of invasion

Question 12

13th Amendment

Answer 12

No involuntary servitude except punishment for crime, draft, or community service for high school graduation.

Applies to both state and private action.

Question 13

Privileges OR immunities clause

Answer 13

From 14th ammendment

Corps not protected

Protects:
–Travel across state lines
–Establish new residence in new state
–Petition Congress
–Vote/run for public office
–Enter public lands

Question 14

“Case or controversy”

Answer 14

RAMPS

R - ripeness - no advisory opinions

A - Abstention – Fed defer to state court on issues of state law

M - mootness (controversy already over), EXCEPTION; CRYER (capable of repetition yet evading review

P - political question

S - standing (injury in fact + causation + redressability)

Question 15

Fed jurisdiction requirements

Answer 15

1) Law-based (const., fed law, maritime)

2) or party-based (fed gov is party, state v. state, state v. citizen of different state, citizen in different state if amount greater than 75k)

4) Must be a “case or controversy”

Question 16

State Sovereign immunity

Answer 16

Under 11th amendment no $ damages against states, injunction only

EXCEPTION: Congress can authorize individual suits to enforce 13th/14th/15th amendments

Question 17

Congress power sources

Answer 17

PEN

P- powers that are enumerated
–regulate interstate commerce
-borrow money
–collect taxes & spend for general welfare
-declare war//raise army

E - enabling causes
-power to enforce 13th/14th/15th amendment

N - necessary and proper clause
-can implicitly pass all laws needed to carry out enumerated powers

Question 18

Cumulative effect doctrine

Answer 18

Tiny private economic (and only economic!)n activities that in the aggregate have an effect on interstate commerce can be regulated by Congress

Question 19

Comprehensive scheme doctrine

Answer 19

Congress can regulate intrastate noneconomic activity if it is part of a comprehensive scheme of activity that affects interstate commerce.

Question 20

Executive power

Answer 20

VAPER

V-veto power

A-appointment

P-pardon federal crimes

E-enforcement

R-removal (executive officials - can remove without cause; officials with fixed terms need cause to fire)

Question 21

Dormant commerce clause

Answer 21

State can’t discriminate against out-of-state goods/actors unless it’s buying shit, it’s an evenhanded reg, or it satisfies strict scrutiny

Question 22

Supremacy clause

Answer 22

State can’t tax fed government or touch enumerated powers

Question 23

Commercial speech

Answer 23

1) SUBSTANTIAL gov interest

2) DIRECTLY advance gov interest

3) NOT MORE EXTENSIVE THAN NECESSARY to serve that interest

Question 24

Sexual/indecent speech

Answer 24

Can only be regulated by reference to secondary effects

Question 25

Obscenity

Answer 25

Work, taken as a whole,

1) appeals primarily to prurient interest by standards of a reasonable person in the local community

2) depicts sexual content in a potential offensive way that is SPECICALLY DEFINED by state law

3) has no serious literary/artistic/scientific value as defined by national standards

Question 26

Establishment cause

Answer 26

Any taxpayer can sue

Originalist approach – establishment cause violated if religious coercion

Question 27

Privileges and immunities clause / Comity clause

Answer 27

Doesn’t protect corps

States can’t discriminate against non-residents unless discrim is

1) substantially related to…

2) …substantial state interest