Supreme Court's New Term: Headliners & Possible Blockbusters (Part 1)

The Court's new term has begun in full swing. Since the first Monday in October--the Court's traditional opening session of arguments--the Justices have been confronting headline issues that could generate blockbuster decisions.

Campaign finance. Abortion clinics. Town prayers. Affirmative action. Warrantless home searches. Presidential recess appointments. Those are among the controversial matters already on the Court's docket.

Let's take a quick look at those cases. We'll start with a few that pose questions under the First Amendment.

[I've been talking a lot about these cases. So, for those who'd prefer--or would like to supplement this post--I've placed links to a couple of radio and TV interviews at the end.]

Campaign Finance (McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission)
In the 2010 Citizens United decision, the Court upheld a First Amendment right to spend money to finance political communications--in that case, a documentary critical of Hillary Clinton. By a bare majority, the Justices ruled that the restrictions on such expenditures, imposed by the McCain Feingold Law, violated free speech.

The McCutcheon case this term deals, not with expenditures per se, but with contributions to political parties or candidates. The McCain Feingold Law imposes various limits on the amount of such contributions allowable.

Are the restrictions on contributions also invalid? Do they violate free speech just as the restrictions on expenditures were held to do in Citizens United?

The decision may well rest on whether any of the conservative Justices believe that unlimited contributions made directly to political parties or candidates create a much greater risk of corruption than do expenditures made for independent communications.

Protecting Religious Liberty, Part 2 [presentation]

This is my attempt at free exercise of religion in a visual nutshell.

It's from a presentation I delivered at a recent panel on Protecting Religious Liberty. The event was co-sponsored by several student organizations at Albany Law School--the Christian Legal Society, the Cardozo Legal Society, and the Muslim Law Student Association--and me.
[The entire event, including the remarks of my knowledgeable and insightful fellow panelists, as well as the Q's & A's with the audience, is available on videocast. (Link below.)]

The presentation was intended as a quick opening primer. A 20 minute overview of that fundamental freedom which is enshrined in the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and in corresponding provisions of the constitutions of the states as well.

The presentation briefly traced the genesis of freedom of religion in American law. The evolution of that freedom in landmark Supreme Court decisions interpreting and applying the 1st Amendment. The startling about-face by the modern Court that has turned the constitutional guarantee on its head, and has left the protection of religious liberty diluted, uncertain, and erratic. And finally, the ongoing aftermath of a weakened constitutional protection.

An outline of the presentation would look like this:

• Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's struggle to protect religious freedom in Virginia
• Early Supreme Court decisions affording little protection to the Mormons and other religious minorities
• Subsequent Supreme Court landmarks recognizing religious liberty as a fundamental freedom, and protecting it from all restrictions except those necessary for the most compelling reasons
• Modern Supreme Court caselaw discarding those highly protective landmarks
• State high courts deciding whether to follow the Supreme Court's about-face or to adhere to more protective standards for religious liberty

Here is the power point accompaniment to that presentation:

(click to enlarge slide)

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To view the complete slide presentation, open HERE.
(Then, for the best view, click File + Download, and Open the download.)

[The videocast of the entire event--again, including the remarks of my knowledgeable and insightful fellow panelists, as well as the Q's & A's with the audience--is accessible via this link. (https://vimeo.com/64143574. Password: Liberty2013 ) (The quality of the videocast is not very high.)]