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3 unusual facts about constitutionality


Beaver Coins

After Oregon's official U.S. territory status, the Oregon Exchange Company became an entirely private enterprise continuing its operations until Governor Joseph Lane ruled the operation unconstitutional.

Constitutionality

This can occur either because the country has no codified constitution that laws must conform to (e.g., the United Kingdom and New Zealand) or because the country does have a codified constitution but no court has the authority to strike down laws on the basis of it (e.g., the Netherlands and Switzerland).

Peter Richard Kenrick

One of these priests, the Reverend John A. Cummings, filed the case which the United States Supreme Court heard and prompted them to rule the ironclad oath unconstitutional.


Amador Valley Joint Union High School District v. State Board of Equalization

In 2009, Amador Valley was cited by dissenting Justice Carlos R. Moreno in arguing the non-constitutionality of Proposition 8.

Anna Diggs Taylor

Her ruling, ACLU v. NSA, held that the domestic wiretapping conducted by the National Security Agency without court approval violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and is unconstitutional.

Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority

In Ashwander, the Supreme Court faced a challenge to the constitutionality of a congressional program of development of the Wilson Dam.

Blue Ridge Dam

TEPCO challenged the constitutionality of the TVA Act in federal court, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law in 1939, and TEPCO was forced to sell its assets to TVA for $78 million in August of that year.

Bryant Bowles

In May 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional.

Canadian Human Rights Commission free speech controversy

White supremacists James Scott Richardson and Alex Kulbashian, who ran a racist website called "Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team," are currently challenging the constitutionality of section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Citizenship Clause

The 39th Congress proposed the principle underlying the Citizenship Clause due to concerns expressed about the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act during floor debates in Congress.

Constitution of Venezuela

The text of the constitution is an interesting hybrid of jurisprudential and political norms drawn from sources as wide as Simón Bolívar's writings on constitutionality and popular sovereignty, José Martí, the Peruvian Marxist José Carlos Mariátegui, and Evgeny Pashukanis.

Druker v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

Druker v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue is a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirming the constitutionality of the marriage penalty.

Ellen D. Katz

Richard L. Hasen described this as "remarkable" because of Katz's past defenses of the constitutionality of the VRA's section 5.

Employment and Social Insurance Act

On November 5, 1935 the Governor General in Council made a matter of reference regarding the constitutionality of the several Acts, two of which dated from 1934, and the cases were then brought to the SCC.

Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund

2008-2009 - Fish farm laws unconstitutional: Celebrated fish farm opponent and marine biologist Alexandra Morton, with EDRF funding, teamed up with long-time environmental lawyer, Greg McDade, in a successful challenge to the constitutionality of British Columbia’s laws allowing fish farms in its waters, ruling that fish farms fall under federal jurisdiction.

Eric Eldred

Therefore he became the lead plaintiff in Eldred v. Ashcroft, a lawsuit which challenged the constitutionality of this act but lost in 2003.

Glen Morgan Williams

He wrote an opinion addressing the constitutionality of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977.

Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management

A September 20, 2011, letter from New York Roman Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan, which included a three-page analysis by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, cited the brief as evidence that the DOJ "has shifted ... to actively attacking DOMA's constitutionality".

Grutter

Grutter v. Bollinger (Barbara Grutter) - 2003 United States Supreme Court case upholding the constitutionality of the University of Michigan Law School's affirmative action program.

Gudalur Janmam Abolition Act

A few cases challenging the constitutionality of the Gudalur Janmam Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act are pending before the Honorable Supreme Court of India in I.R.Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu; Glenrock Estate v. State of Tamil Nadu and Nilambur Kovilakam v. State of Tamil Nadu.

Gun laws in California

The constitutionality of the federal Gun-Free School Zone Act is in question due to the U.S. v. Lopez ruling.

Jefferson County, West Virginia

The question of the constitutionality of the formation of the new state was brought before the Supreme Court of the United States in the following manner: Berkeley and Jefferson County, West Virginia, counties lying on the Potomac east of the mountains, in 1863, with the consent of the Reorganized Government of Virginia, had supposedly voted in favor of annexation to West Virginia.

Jeremiah S. Black

Perhaps the most influential of President Buchanan's official advisers, he denied the constitutionality of secession, and urged that Fort Sumter be properly reinforced and defended.

Judiciary Act of 1789

A clause granting the Supreme Court the power to issue writs of mandamus outside its original jurisdiction was declared unconstitutional by Marbury v. Madison (1803) (5 U.S. 137), one of the seminal cases in American law.

Karcher v. May

Karcher and Orechio appealed, although by the time of filing their terms as Speaker and President had expired; their successors, Chuck Hardwick and John F. Russo, joined the executive officers in refusing to defend the constitutionality of the statute.

Liberalism in Iran

A politician and former Iranian Prime Minister, Foroughi's writings and translations during that period were mainly discussions of the basic norms of constitutionality and pillars of modern thought.

Mark Fernando

Towards the end of his career, Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva had excluded him from hearings relating to the constitutionality of bills before the Parliament.

Marquette Law Review

Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua, "Constitutionality of Tuition Vouchers," 76 Marq. L. Rev. 487 (1993)

Morris Ernst

In 1937, as attorney for the American Newspaper Guild, he persuaded the Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act (the Wagner Act) as applied to the press, establishing the right of media employees to organize labor unions.

New York City Transit Authority v. Beazer

New York City Transit Authority v. Beazer, 440 U.S. 568 (1979), was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court in which the constitutionality of an employer's refusal to hire methadone users was upheld.

Pen register

It overturned Olmstead v. United States (1928) and held that warrantless wiretaps were unconstitutional searches, because there was a reasonable expectation that the communication would be private.

R. v. Finta

During the pre-trial, Finta's lawyers, Doug Christie and Barbara Kulaszka, challenged the constitutionality of the criminal charges as a violation of section 11(b) of the Charter.

Reference re Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act

The provinces of Quebec and Ontario disputed the constitutionality of the Act, as they believed it intruded into provincial jurisdiction with respect to property and civil rights.

Rulings of the Constitutional Court of Thailand

On 24 June 2003, a petition was filed with the Constitutional Court seeking its ruling on the constitutionality of Jaruvan Maintaka's appointment by the Senate as Auditor-General.

Sato Kilman

On 16 June, however, Chief Justice Vincent Lunabek ruled in a separate case put forward by Edward Natapei, contesting the constitutionality of Kilman's initial election in December 2010.

Smith v. Maryland

It overturned Olmstead v. United States and held that wiretaps were unconstitutional searches, because there was a reasonable expectation that the communication would be private.

Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia

After four years of deliberations, the Constitutional Court of Spain assessed the constitutionality of the challenged articles and its binding assessment was released on June 28 of 2010.

Supreme Court of Japan

When decisions have been rendered on such matters as the constitutionality of the Self-Defense Forces, the sponsorship of Shinto ceremonies by public authorities, or the authority of the Ministry of Education to determine the content of school textbooks or teaching curricula, the Court has generally deferred to the government.

Tax Day

The case of Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. challenged the constitutionality of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 which taxed incomes over $4,000 at the rate of two percent.

Undue burden standard

In a 7-to-1 ruling, Associate Justice Stanley Forman Reed fashioned an "undue burden" test to decide the constitutionality of a Virginia law requiring separate but equal racial segregation in public transportation.

United States national motto

The constitutionality of the modern national motto has been questioned with relationship to the separation of church and state outlined in the First Amendment.

United States v. Extreme Associates

On January 20, 2005, District Court Judge Gary L. Lancaster dropped the charges, agreeing with the defense that the federal anti-obscenity statutes were unconstitutional, as they violated a person's fundamental right to possess and view whatever they want in the privacy of their own home.

Wilfred Feinberg

Feinberg has authored many seminal opinions, including United States v. Miller, which upheld the constitutionality of a federal law prohibiting the burning of draft cards, NLRB v. J.P. Stevens & Co, the famous labor union case that inspired the movie, Norma Rae, and Kelly v. Wyman, aff'd sub nom. Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 271 (1970).


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