The President’s pardon power has received renewed attention and controversy during the Trump Administration. Those interested in a useful survey of controversial presidential pardons from this administration and others, as well as an interesting proposal for reform, should check out a new article in the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, “Should the Power of Presidential Pardon… Continue reading →
Professor Zach Price, my UC Hastings Law colleague and a recognized star of U.S. constitutional theory, has recently published an essay entitled “Symmetric Constitutionalism: An Essay on Masterpiece Cakeshop and the post-Kennedy Supreme Court.” This essay proposes “symmetric constitutionalism” as a method for judges to use when deciding hard cases. His idea has drawn attention,… Continue reading →
Last February, UC Hastings Law hosted the first post-retirement symposium on Justice Kennedy’s jurisprudence, with the justice himself attending. In the Hastings Law Journal’s symposium following the event, my colleague Rory Little has published a valuable survey of Justice Kennedy’s criminal cases during his thirteen years as a federal appellate judge and three decades on… Continue reading →
All government officials take an oath to uphold the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the ultimate authority on the interpretation of the Constitution and, more pointedly, when a law or official conduct is unconstitutional. But the Court doesn’t decide all those questions. And so executive officials are often left with unanswered questions about whether a… Continue reading →
When Governor Jerry Brown signed California’s drug transparency law, Senate Bill 17 (SB-17), in 2017, the state took a crucial first step towards increased transparency and accountability in a landscape of skyrocketing prescription-drug prices. Not only does SB-17 require drug manufacturers and health insurers to disclose information about rising prescription-drug prices, but it also represents… Continue reading →
My colleague Professor Zachary Price, an expert on the constitutional separation of powers, recently dove into the First Amendment debates in a symposium article published in the University of Pennsylvania’s Journal of Constitutional Law. The article, titled “Our Imperiled Absolutist First Amendment,” examines the First Amendment in light of three salient socio-political developments: fake news,… Continue reading →
Must the federal government turn over federal public lands to the states? Several years ago, the Utah Legislature appropriated several hundred thousand dollars to study this very question. Not surprisingly, since the study was written by attorneys who hoped to litigate these same claims, the answer was “yes.” This was not exactly a new position.… Continue reading →
In “Reliance on Nonenforcement,” appearing in the William & Mary Law Review, my brilliant colleague Zach Price continues his leading work on executive–branch nonenforcement, an issue that has risen to the forefront in an era of divided and polarized politics. The idea of executive nonenforcement is straightforward and has a long pedigree. Has a police… Continue reading →
My colleague Zach Price, who writes about constitutional law, with a specific emphasis on separation of powers and executive power, has written a timely and very important new article called “Funding Conditions and Separation of Powers,” forthcoming in Vanderbilt Law Review. The article tackles a heady issue of law and politics: when are congressional conditions… Continue reading →
