Constitutional Law Flashcards
State Action
The Constitution generally protects agains wrongful conduct by the government, not private parties. In other words, state action is a necessary prerequisite to triggering constitutional protections.
Significant State Involvement
State action may exist if there are sufficient mutual contacts between the conduct of a private party and the government. The state must act affirmatively to facilitate, encourage, or authorize the activity.
Traditional Government Function
State action is found when a private person carries on activities that are traditionally performed exclusively by the state, such as governing a “company town” or running primary elections.
Standing
Article III, Section 2 restriction federal judicial power to “cases” and controversies.” A federal court cannot decide a case unless the plaintiff has standing or a concrete interest in the outcome, to bring it. Standing requires injury-in-fact, causation, and redressability.
Injury-in-fact must be concrete and particularized, actual or imminent. The injury does not need to by physical or economic. The plaintiff must show that the injury was fairly traceable to the challenged action - that the defendant’s conduct caused the injury. It must be likely that a favorable court decision will redress a discrete injury suffered by the plaintiff.
Third-Party Standing
A plaintiff can bring a lawsuit based on the legal claims of a third party if the third party is unable to assert their own right, if there is a special relationship between the plaintiff and third parties, or if the injury adversely affects the plaintiff’s relationship with a third party.
Mootness
A case has become moot if further legal proceedings would have no effect. A live controversy must exist at each stage of review. A case will not be dismissed if the controversy is a type that may often recur but will not last long enough to work its way through the judicial system (capable of repetition, yet evading review). Voluntary cessation will not result in dismissal. Named plaintiff’s claim in a certified class action is resolved does not render the entire class action moot.
The 11th Amendment
The 11th Amendment provides for state sovereign immunity that prohibits an individual from suing a state or state agency for money damages in the state’s own court or in federal court unless the state consents or Congress expressly says so to enforce the 14th Amendment rights.
Can sue state officers. Injunction relief by enjoining appropriate state officer, money damages from the officer personally. Cannot get damages from state treasury unless Congress expresses says so.
Political Question
A federal court will not rule on a matter in controversy if the matter is a political question to be resolved by one or both of the other two branches of government. Arises when Constitution has assigned decision making to a different branch of the government, or the matter is inherently not one that the judiciary can decide (foreign affairs, impeachment).
Legislative Powers: Alienage
Congress has plenary power of citizenship and naturalization. Federal classifications based on US Citizenship are deemed valid unless arbitrary and unreasonable.
States and localities cannot require US citizenship for access to private employment or for government benefits. Alienage classifications according to state action will trigger strict scrutiny under the equal protection clause. Jobs that have a particular relevance to the role of government can require that only U.S. citizens be hired and are subject to rational basis standard.
Delegation of Legislative Powers
Because Congress is vested by Article I with “all legislative powers,” it may not delegate that power to any other branch of government. This principle is known as the “non-delegation doctrine.” However, delegation of some of Congress’s authority to the executive branch has consistently been held constitutional, so long as Congress specifies an “intelligible principle” to guide the delegate. Almost any legislative delegation passes the “intelligible standards” requirement, so even broadly phrased standards have been upheld
Taxing and Spending Powers
Article I of the Constitution grants Congress the power to tax and spend to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. All duties, imposts and excises must be uniform throughout the United States. The spending power has been interpreted very broadly. Congress has the power to spend for the “general welfare”, i.e., any public purpose, not just to pursue its other enumerated powers. Although there are areas in which Congress cannot directly regulate, it can use its spending power to accomplish such regulation indirectly by conditioning federal funding.
Commandeering
Congress cannot “commandeer” state legislatures by commanding them to enact specific legislation or administer a federal regulatory program, and it may not circumvent that restriction by conscripting a state executive officer directly. However, through the use of the taxing and spending powers, Congress may encourage state action that it cannot directly compel.
Interstate Commerce
Congress has the power to regulate (i) the channels (highways, waterways, airways, etc.) and (ii) the instrumentalities (cars, trucks, ships, airplanes, etc.) of interstate commerce, as well as (iii) any activity that substantially affects interstate commerce, provided that the regulation does not infringe upon any other constitutional right.
Privileges and Immunities - Comity Clause
The Comity Clause provides that citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities in the several states. Citizen does not include corporations or aliens.
Discrimination against out-of-state residents (not corporations or aliens) in setting the fee for a commercial activity violates the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV, but similar discrimination for a recreational activity, such as a recreational hunting license, does not, if there is a rational basis for the fee differential.
Exception: Discrimination against out-of-state citizens may be valid if the state can show a substantial reason for the difference in treatment. A substantial reason exists if: (1) nonresidents either cause or are a part of the problem that the state is attempting to solve and (2) there are no less-restrictive means to solve the problem.
Dormant Commerce Clause
If Congress has not enacted legislation in a particular area of interstate commerce, then the states are free to regulate, so long as the state law (1) does not discriminate against out-of-state commerce, (2) unduly burden interstate commerce, or (3) regulate out-of-state activity.
(1) A state or local regulation discriminates against out-of-state commerce if it protects local economic interests at the expense of out-of-state competitors.
If a state regulation is facially discriminatory, the regulation may be upheld if the state can establish that an important local interest is being served, and that no other nondiscriminatory means are available to achieve that purpose.
(2) A state regulation that is not discriminatory may still be struck down as unconstitutional if it imposes an undue burden on interstate commerce. The courts will balance the objective and purpose of the state law against the burden on interstate commerce and evaluate whether there are less restrictive alternatives. If the benefits of the state law are grossly outweighed by the burdens on interstate commerce, then even nondiscriminatory regulation may be struck down.
