Constitutional Acquiescence

Shalev Roisman 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 668 When courts, scholars, and government decisionmakers debate constitutional separation of powers questions, they primarily analyze past branch practice to divine the answer. Yet, despite the long pedigree and widespread contemporary use of this method of constitutional interpretation, precisely how interpreters should look to past practice has remained...
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Constitutional Personhood

Zoë Robinson 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 605 Over the past decade, in a variety of high-profile cases, the Supreme Court has grappled with difficult questions as to the constitutional personhood of a variety of claimants. Of most note are the recent corporate constitutional personhood claims that the protections of the First Amendment Speech and...
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Judicial Amendment of Statutes

Eric Fish 84 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 563 When courts engage in judicial review they do not merely invalidate or “strike down” unconstitutional statutes. Instead, they rewrite such statutes in order to make them constitutionally valid. They can do this in a variety of ways—by deleting words from a statute, adding words to a statute,...
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Foster v. Chatman: E-Racing the White Jury’s Constitutional Veneer

Foster v. Chatman, 578 U.S. ___ (2016) (Roberts, C.J.). Response by Phyllis Goldfarb Geo. Wash. L. Rev. On the Docket (Oct. Term 2015) Slip Opinion | New York Times | SCOTUSblog E-Racing the White Jury’s Constitutional Veneer When Stephen Bright, a well-known capital defense attorney, began his oral argument before the Supreme Court in Foster v....
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Ocasio v. United States: The Contortionist Extortionist

Ocasio v. United States, 578 U.S. ___ (2016) (Alito, J.). Response by Professor Randall D. Eliason Geo. Wash. L. Rev. On the Docket (Oct. Term 2015) Slip Opinion | New York Times | SCOTUSblog   The Contortionist Extortionist In criminal law, we ordinarily think of perpetrator and victim as two distinct entities. It would be nonsensical,...
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