"To Say What the Law Is": The Supreme Court as Arbiter of Constitutionality

Date

2005-4

Citation

A. E. Dick Howard, "To Say What the Law Is": The Supreme Court as Arbiter of Constitutionality, Issues of Democracy 5–8 (April, 2005).

UVA Law Faculty Affiliations

A. E. Dick Howard

Center for International & Comparative Law

Constitutional Law and Legal History

More in This Category

An Expert-Sourced Measure of Judicial Ideology

Kevin Cope

We introduce the first ideology measure covering every non-Supreme-Court Article III judge on a single scale. The dataset comprises dynamic, interval...

Public-Law Litigation at a Crossroads: Article III Standing and 'Tester' Plaintiffs

Rachel Bayefsky

An upcoming Supreme Court case on Article III standing and disability presents critical questions about the future of litigation that promotes...

How to Legitimate the Prosecution of Politicians

Saikrishna Prakash

Ian Ayres

We propose the creation of a Prosecutor Jury—a mechanism designed to balance the need to hold politicians accountable for their crimes, and the need...

The One Remaining Identity the Supreme Court Is Willing to Protect

Craig Konnoth

There is one group that the court does not put into an identity straitjacket—those claiming religious exemptions.

For Now, Court Is Cool with California in Charge

Ruth Mason

Michael S. Knoll

Law students frequently find the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dormant Commerce Clause doctrine confusing. That is no surprise given the sharp disagreement...

Do Federal or State Prosecutors Get To Go First in Trying Trump? A Law Professor Untangles The Conflict

Darryl K. Brown

A federal grand jury in Florida indicted former President Donald Trump on June 8, 2023, on multiple criminal charges related to classified documents...

Can Congress Bar Fully Autonomous Nuclear Command and Control?

Ashley S. Deeks

Matthew Waxman

Congress may want to prevent nuclear command and control from going fully autonomous. Would such a law be constitutional?

The Supreme Court Just Dealt a Major Blow to Corporate Mandates

James Nelson

Micah J. Schwartzman

Elizabeth Sepper

On Thursday, the Supreme Court subtly transformed the rights of religious workers in America. Under the guise of “clarifying” a nearly 50-year-old...

Military Academies Can Still Consider Race in Admissions, But the Rest of the Nation’s Colleges and Universities Cannot, Court Rules

Kimberly J. Robinson

Vinay Harpalani

Kristine Bowman

In a 6-3 ruling on Thursday, June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the use of race in college admissions at Harvard and the University of...

Opinion: The Supreme Court is making religion an all-purpose excuse for ignoring the law

Looking for a federal law to be declared unconstitutional? Religion may well be your best bet -- and that's true regardless of how "real" your...

Bad Faith Prosecution

Ann Woolhandler

Michael G. Collins

Jonathan Remy Nash

In our increasingly polarized society, claims that prosecutions are politically motivated, racially motivated, or just plain arbitrary are more common...

Separation-of-Powers Avoidance

Payvand Ahdout

When federal judges are called on to adjudicate separation-of-powers disputes, they are not mere arbiters of the separation of powers. By resolving a...

An obscure 1800s law is shaping up to be the center of the next abortion battle – legal scholars explain what’s behind the Victorian-era Comstock Act

Sonia Suter

Naomi R. Cahn

Anti-abortion groups are looking for new ways to wage their battle against abortion rights, eyeing the potential implications of a 150-year-old law...

Religion as Disobedience

Xiao Wang

Religion today offers plaintiffs a ready path to disobey laws without consequence. Examples of such disobedience abound. In the past few years alone...

We Have Only Begun to Fight

Kimberly J. Robinson

This story begins with one parent who took his demands for equal educational opportunity for his children all the way to the highest court of our land...

Deep in the Shadows?: The Facts About the Emergency Docket

G. Mitu Gulati

Pablo Das

Lee Epstein

The past few years have witnessed a particular accusation leveled repeatedly and loudly at the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority: that...

The Supreme Court rules mifepristone can remain available – here’s how 2 conflicting federal court decisions led to this point

Naomi R. Cahn

Sonia Suter

The U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling on April 21, 2023, that allows continued access to the abortion pill mifepristone in states where...

It’s Time to Abandon (or Closely Monitor) Judicial Life Tenure

Life tenure for the federal judiciary doesn’t promote judicial independence or the development of law as the Framers expected, and should be repealed...