NCJ Number
183671
Editor(s)
Dennis J. Hutchinson,
David A. Strauss,
Geoffrey R. Stone
Date Published
1998
Length
503 pages
Annotation
These 11 papers examine United States Supreme Court decisions related to physician-assisted suicide, Congressional power and freedom of religion, freedom of speech in relation to children, State sovereignty, traffic stops involving minority motorists, and other issues.
Abstract
The analysis of five decisions that rejected challenges to State bans on physician-assisted death concludes that the Court appropriately selected the lie that prohibition prevents the practice instead of the lie that its approval would not cost everyone deeply. Two papers examine the decision in City of Boerne v. Flores, in which the Court concluded that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act exceeded the scope of Congress’s authority under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment and therefore was constitutionally invalid. Another paper analyzes the decision in Reno v. ACLU, which struck down the Communications Decency Act, which virtually banned not-for-pay online distribution of material containing patently offensive speech about sexual or excretory activities. Another paper examined Printz v. United States, in which the Court invalidated provisions of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act that required State law enforcement officers to help administer a Federal gun control policy. Other papers focus on decisions related to the buying and selling of securities, search and seizure law related to police practices regarding vehicle stops of minority drivers, whether a State could favor the two-party system in crafting its election laws, and the appointment of Supreme Court Justice Byron White by President Kennedy. The final two papers examine localism and nationalism with respect to corporate law and the influence of the First Amendment on a 1992 decision of the Australian High Court in relation to paid political advertisements on television. Tables and footnotes