Closing the Courthouse Door

Closing the Courthouse Door PDF Author: Erwin Chemerinsky
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300224907
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
A leading legal scholar explores how the constitutional right to seek justice has been restricted by the Supreme Court The Supreme Court s decisions on constitutional rights are well known and much talked about. But individuals who want to defend those rights need something else as well: access to courts that can rule on their complaints. And on matters of access, the Court s record over the past generation has been almost uniformly hostile to the enforcement of individual citizens constitutional rights. The Court has restricted who has standing to sue, expanded the immunity of governments and government workers, limited the kinds of cases the federal courts can hear, and restricted the right of habeas corpus. Closing the Courthouse Door, by the distinguished legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, is the first book to show the effect of these decisions: taken together, they add up to a growing limitation on citizens ability to defend their rights under the Constitution. Using many stories of people whose rights have been trampled yet who had no legal recourse, Chemerinsky argues that enforcing the Constitution should be the federal courts primary purpose, and they should not be barred from considering any constitutional question.

Closing the Courthouse Door

Closing the Courthouse Door PDF Author: Erwin Chemerinsky
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300224907
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Get Book Here

Book Description
A leading legal scholar explores how the constitutional right to seek justice has been restricted by the Supreme Court The Supreme Court s decisions on constitutional rights are well known and much talked about. But individuals who want to defend those rights need something else as well: access to courts that can rule on their complaints. And on matters of access, the Court s record over the past generation has been almost uniformly hostile to the enforcement of individual citizens constitutional rights. The Court has restricted who has standing to sue, expanded the immunity of governments and government workers, limited the kinds of cases the federal courts can hear, and restricted the right of habeas corpus. Closing the Courthouse Door, by the distinguished legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, is the first book to show the effect of these decisions: taken together, they add up to a growing limitation on citizens ability to defend their rights under the Constitution. Using many stories of people whose rights have been trampled yet who had no legal recourse, Chemerinsky argues that enforcing the Constitution should be the federal courts primary purpose, and they should not be barred from considering any constitutional question.

Closing the Courthouse Door

Closing the Courthouse Door PDF Author: Erwin Chemerinsky
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300211589
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- ONE: Why Do We Have Federal Courts? -- TWO: Suing the Government: The King Can Do Wrong -- THREE: Suing Government Officers -- FOUR: An Alleged Constitutional Violation Always Should Be Adjudicated -- FIVE: The Great Writ: How Habeas Corpus Has Been Suspended -- SIX: Opening the Federal Courthouse Doors -- SEVEN: Enforcing the Constitution -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z

Blocking the Courthouse Door

Blocking the Courthouse Door PDF Author: Stephanie Mencimer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743298608
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Thanks to constant political oratory against "frivolous lawsuits" and "jackpot justice," it is widely known that there's a legal crisis in this country. President Bush never misses an opportunity to call for laws that would bring more "common sense" to a legal system that, he claims, is out of control, wrecking the economy, driving doctors out of their practices, bankrupting small businesses, and costing American jobs. Journalists repeat the charges without examining them. As a result, the lawsuit issue has moved to the political front burner, and in the past three years, state after state has responded by limiting citizens' rights to sue. Just this year alone, the Republicanled Congress has passed restrictions on class action lawsuits and is steps away from enacting limits on medical malpractice lawsuits. But is there really a crisis? National data show that the number of civil suits is falling, not rising, and that the average damage award is also going down. Despite intense media hype to the contrary, the number of personal injury lawsuits filed every year has been tumbling for the past decade. Upon closer examination, the stories of ridiculous lawsuits usually turn out to be false or badly misleading. The crisis, in short, appears to be a phantom. So how do we explain the scary headlines? Who's behind the "tort reform movement," and what are the real goals? Blocking the Courthouse Door will show that the movement against so-called greedy trial lawyers and irresponsible plaintiffs is the result of a concerted and successful campaign by large corporations to get this issue on the table and thus limit their own vulnerability in the civil justice system. They have spent decades, and many millions of dollars, on focus groups and Madison Avenue public relations research. They have funded institutes, sponsored academic research, bankrolled politicians, set up phony "astroturf " grassroots organizations (with chamber of commerce return addresses), and fed copy to all-too-gullible journalists. For corporations, the self-interest involved is fairly plain. Tobacco companies, no longer able to dodge the bullet of liability for knowingly selling poisons, are making an end run around the civil justice system. If they can't win a class action suit, they'll make suing itself illegal. Insurance companies, drowning in red ink from mismanagement and bad investments in the bond market, hike insurance rates by huge sums and blame malpractice suits. The doctors in turn blame greedy lawyers -- and their own injured patients. And for Republicans, the campaign provides an extra bonus: defunding the Democratic Party. Limits on lawsuits cut into the income of some of the Democratic Party's most generous donors, the trial lawyers, who are often the only source of campaign cash for Democrats in many states. By exposing some of the dubious characters, corporate chicanery, skewed research, fudged numbers, and bogus journalism that have buttressed the calls for lawsuit reform,Stephanie Mencimer shows who's behind the movement to close the courthouse doors, and how they've successfully persuaded millions of Americans to give up their critical legal rights without fully understanding what they're losing -- often until it's too late.

A Federal Right to Education

A Federal Right to Education PDF Author: Kimberly Jenkins Robinson
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479825891
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
How the United States can provide equal educational opportunity to every child The United States Supreme Court closed the courthouse door to federal litigation to narrow educational funding and opportunity gaps in schools when it ruled in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez in 1973 that the Constitution does not guarantee a right to education. Rodriguez pushed reformers back to the state courts where they have had some success in securing reforms to school funding systems through education and equal protection clauses in state constitutions, but far less success in changing the basic structure of school funding in ways that would ensure access to equitable and adequate funding for schools. Given the limitations of state school funding litigation, education reformers continue to seek new avenues to remedy inequitable disparities in educational opportunity and achievement, including recently returning to federal court. This book is the first comprehensive examination of three issues regarding a federal right to education: why federal intervention is needed to close educational opportunity and achievement gaps; the constitutional and statutory legal avenues that could be employed to guarantee a federal right to education; and, the scope of what a federal right to education should guarantee. A Federal Right to Education provides a timely and thoughtful analysis of how the United States could fulfill its unmet promise to provide equal educational opportunity and the American Dream to every child, regardless of race, class, language proficiency, or neighborhood.

Summary: Blocking the Courthouse Door

Summary: Blocking the Courthouse Door PDF Author: BusinessNews Publishing,
Publisher: Primento
ISBN: 2511000245
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 19

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Book Description
The must-read summary of Stephanie Mencimer's book “Blocking the Courthouse Door: How the Republican Party and Its Corporate Allies are Taking Away Your Right to Sue”. This complete summary of "Blocking the Courthouse Door" by Stephanie Mencimer analyses her examination of all aspects of the tort reform campaign. She questions the approach of Republican-led Congress towards lawsuits and empowering corporations instead of individuals. Added-value of this summary: • Save time • Understand the tort reform campaign in a fraction of the time • Expand your knowledge of the American legal system and Republican reforms To learn more, read "Blocking the Courthouse Door" and discover how the Republican Party imposed limits on suing and the implications this has had for American society.

Protecting Constitutional Freedoms

Protecting Constitutional Freedoms PDF Author: Daan Braveman
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
According to Braveman, the federal courts are being systematically closed to individuals challenging the constitutionality of the conduct of state officials. Debate over the role of the federal court system in upholding constitutional rights is not new to readers of law journals and scholarly articles. Braveman now presents this crucial issue to the general public, who will find it of grave concern. His book brings together information that has previously been available only in separate articles. Beginning with an historical overview of the emergence of the federal courts as the guardian of constitutional rights, Braveman then focuses on specific cases and doctrines to illustrate a radical change in our judicial philosophy. His book brings together information that has previously been available only in separate articles.

The First 100 Years of the ACLU

The First 100 Years of the ACLU PDF Author: Steven C. Markoff
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781644283387
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The ACLU was involved in excess of 1,190 cases in the US Supreme Court as a party, counsel of record/ACLU attorney, or as the filer of an amicus (friend of the court) brief, during ninety-four of its first one hundred years, ending in January 19, 2020. This handbook summarizes all the facts and statistics from its companion three-volume set of over 1,190 cases (from June 8, 1925, Gitlow v. New York), and contains three examples of the cases found in the three-volume set.

Worse Than Nothing

Worse Than Nothing PDF Author: Erwin Chemerinsky
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300268483
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Why originalism is a flawed, incoherent, and dangerously ideological method of constitutional interpretation Originalism, the view that the meaning of a constitutional provision is fixed when it is adopted, was once the fringe theory of a few extremely conservative legal scholars but is now a well-accepted mode of constitutional interpretation. Three of the Supreme Court’s nine justices explicitly embrace the originalist approach, as do increasing numbers of judges in the lower courts. Noted legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky gives a comprehensive analysis of the problems that make originalism unworkable as a method of constitutional interpretation. He argues that the framers themselves never intended constitutional interpretation to be an inflexible and shows how it is often impossible to know what the “original intent” of any particular provision was. Perhaps worst of all, though its supporters tout it as a politically neutral and objective method, originalist interpretation tends to disappear when its results fail to conform to modern conservative ideology.

We the People

We the People PDF Author: Erwin Chemerinsky
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 1250166004
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
"This work will become the defining text on progressive constitutionalism — a parallel to Thomas Picketty’s contribution but for all who care deeply about constitutional law. Beautifully written and powerfully argued, this is a masterpiece." --Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School, and author of Free Culture Worried about what a super conservative majority on the Supreme Court means for the future of civil liberties? From gun control to reproductive health, a conservative court will reshape the lives of all Americans for decades to come. The time to develop and defend a progressive vision of the U.S. Constitution that protects the rights of all people is now. University of California Berkeley Dean and respected legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky expertly exposes how conservatives are using the Constitution to advance their own agenda that favors business over consumers and employees, and government power over individual rights. But exposure is not enough. Progressives have spent too much of the last forty-five years trying to preserve the legacy of the Warren Court’s most important rulings and reacting to the Republican-dominated Supreme Courts by criticizing their erosion of rights—but have not yet developed a progressive vision for the Constitution itself. Yet, if we just look to the promise of the Preamble—liberty and justice for all—and take seriously its vision, a progressive reading of the Constitution can lead us forward as we continue our fight ensuring democratic rule, effective government, justice, liberty, and equality. Includes the Complete Constitution and Amendments of the United States of America

Free Speech on Campus

Free Speech on Campus PDF Author: Erwin Chemerinsky
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300231865
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Can free speech coexist with an inclusive campus environment? Hardly a week goes by without another controversy over free speech on college campuses. On one side, there are increased demands to censor hateful, disrespectful, and bullying expression and to ensure an inclusive and nondiscriminatory learning environment. On the other side are traditional free speech advocates who charge that recent demands for censorship coddle students and threaten free inquiry. In this clear and carefully reasoned book, a university chancellor and a law school dean—both constitutional scholars who teach a course in free speech to undergraduates—argue that campuses must provide supportive learning environments for an increasingly diverse student body but can never restrict the expression of ideas. This book provides the background necessary to understanding the importance of free speech on campus and offers clear prescriptions for what colleges can and can’t do when dealing with free speech controversies.