Rules

Question 1

Standing Elements

Answer 1

1) Injury in fact - must be non-speculative & concrete
- Generalized grievances = cannot bring a suit unless you have been directly injured
2) Casual connection between injury & conduct (but-for)
3) Probability of a favorable verdict will reduce harm/redressability

Question 2

Issues in political question cases (if one of these exists there is an argument it is a political question)

Answer 2

1) Textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to a coordinate political department
2) Lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standards for resolving it
3) Impossibility of deciding without an initial policy determination of a kind clearly for nonjudicial discretion
4) Impossibility of a courts undertaking independent resolution without expressing lack of the respect due coordinate branches of govt
5) Unusual need for unquestioning adherence to a political decision already made
6) Potential of embarrassment from multifarious pronouncements by various departments on one question

Question 3

Mootness Rule

Answer 3

If the facts of a case change while the case is pending in such a way that judicial resolution of the case will have no impact then the case is moot. It is then no longer a case or controversy under AIII & must be dismissed.

Question 4

Exceptions to Mootness

Answer 4

1) Collateral consequences = a challenge to a criminal conviction does not become moot when the D’s sentence is complete because the D retains interest in avoiding collateral consequences of the conviction
2) Voluntary Cessation = A voluntary cessation of the alleged unlawful conduct will not necessarily moot a case 3) Capable of repetition = If a case where a continuing live controversy has passed but they are likely to recur the court will not dismiss for moot
4) Class action = a class action suit does not become moot because the named P becomes moot if there remain unnamed class members with live actions

Question 5

Ripeness

Answer 5

• Fitness of the issues (the record is complete
• Policies underlying ripeness doctrine
  1) Preventing entanglement in abstract & premature disagreements
  2) Avoiding unnecessary constitutional decisions
  3) Sharpening the focus on the issues by developing particular facts and
  4) Promoting the separation of powers

Question 6

Exceptions to sovereign immunity

Answer 6

i. Govt can consent to be sued - must be express and not inferred
1) Govt contracts, claims which govt has unconstitutionally taken land without just compensation
ii. Suit against state officer acting unconstitutionally
1) Cannot be working in an official capacity if violating the constitution
iii. Congress can pass legislative acts that allow suits
iv. Fed govt can bring suit against a state
v. Local govt do not have sovereign immunity

Question 7

Does a law overstep congress’s authority onto state power - taken from National League of Cities/Garcia (10th Amend)

Answer 7

a. Federal statute at issue must regulate the state as states
b. Statute must address matters that are indisputably attributes of state sovereignty
c. State compliance with federal obligation must directly impair their ability to structure integral operations in areas of traditional governmental functions
d. Relation of state and federal interests must not be such that the nature of the federal interest justifies state submission

Question 8

3 things the commerce clause allows

Answer 8

a. Channels of interstate commerce
b. Instrumentalities of interstate commerce
c. Activities that substantially affect interstate commerce

Question 9

Limitations on conditional spending grants factors - taken from S.D v. Dole

Answer 9

a. Is the exercise of spending power “in pursuit of the general welfare”?
i. Courts should defer substantially to the judgement of congress on whether a particular expenditure is intended to serve general public purposes
b. Congress must make “conditional” terms unambiguous so that the state may knowingly exercise their choice to participate and recognize the consequences of their participation
c. Conditions in federal grants must be related to the federal interest in particular national projects or programs
d. Other constitutional provisions may provide an independent bar to the conditional grant of federal funds
e. The financial inducement offered by congress may not be coercive
I. Pressure upon states must not turn into compulsion