Third in the HLPR Case Comment series, “Least Restrictive Means”: Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, by Noah Marks! Noah examines a strange leap in the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Hobby Lobby that has left the way open for further restrictions on access to contraceptives.
Case Comment: McCullen v. Coakley
Second in the HLPR Case Comment series: McCullen v. Coakley: How Should We Reconcile the First Amendment with Abortion Rights? Revisiting the Supreme Court’s June decision regarding protestors or “counselors” who located near the entrances to abortion clinics, Ana Choi examines the conflict between free speech rights and abortion rights in this case.
Case Comment: Town of Greece v. Galloway
Over the summer, several members of HLPR worked on Case Comments. They discuss major decisions from the last two months (May and June) of the Supreme Court’s most recent term. Compared to our blog posts, they benefit from being able to relate earlier decisions to later ones, to gauge the reaction to the decision, and to reflect at greater length in a longer-form piece.
Leading off the Case Comments, Ratifying the Wrong Consensus and Aggregating Inconsistently: Town of Greece v. Galloway, by Tom Watts. Enjoy!
Getting Rid of Teacher Tenure Will Not Lead to Education Equality
By Ana Choi
Last month, David Boies—the star litigator who represented Al Gore in Bush v. Gore and argued against California’s Prop 8 in Hollingsworth v. Perry—became the chairman of Partnership for Educational Justice (PEJ), an organization founded by former CNN anchor Campbell Brown to pursue lawsuits challenging teacher tenure. According to an interview with the Washington Post, Boies is crafting a state-by-state litigation strategy in order to eliminate teacher tenure through the court system. Boies’s decision to join PEJ followed on the heels of Vergara v. California, a case in which a California judge ruled that teacher tenure laws violate students’ civil rights under the state’s constitution (the teachers union and Gov. Jerry Brown are appealing). [Read more…] about Getting Rid of Teacher Tenure Will Not Lead to Education Equality
Welcome new students!
HLPR welcomes new students to HLS! HLPR is the official national journal of the American Constitution Society. There are three opportunities this week to learn about HLPR and sign up for positions:
- Journals Open House – Wednesday, Sept. 17, 12-2pm in WCC 3039
- Journals Fair – Wednesday, Sept. 17, 6-8pm in Milstein
- HLPR Information Session – Friday, Sept. 19, 12pm in WCC 2012 (*note the new location!*)
Please join us and learn more about opportunities to work with our journal.
We also encourage you to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter! We have lots of good content coming this year.
Campaign Finance Reform Defeated (Twice)
By Tom Watts
Today, the Senate rejected a constitutional amendment that would have reversed many of the Supreme Court’s campaign finance decisions, most notably Citizens United. Combine this with the defeat of the lone Republican candidate for Senate who supported campaign finance reform and was backed by the Mayday SuperPAC, and the past couple days have not been good for campaign finance reform. This should come as no surprise: as I have recently argued, campaign finance reform is a dead end. There are plenty of other good areas of election law to examine, but this one is going nowhere fast. [Read more…] about Campaign Finance Reform Defeated (Twice)