Constitutional Law

The Supreme Court will hear a gun control case in December that could significantly limit the ability of state and local governments to regulate guns for public safety reasons.

The case involves a New York City regulation on transporting handguns that was repealed in July. Although that original rule is no longer in effect, for now the court has not determined the matter to be moot, so the case will move forward.

Lost in the shuffle of a busy October at the Supreme Court—one filled with high profile developments concerning the right to abortion and the treatment of LGBT workers—was a single, ominous sentence buried away on page eleven of the Court’s 

Donald Trump says he should not be impeached as president, since there was "no quid pro quo" on a phone call where he asked the Ukrainian president to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. But does quid pro quo need to be explicitly stated to be a legal issue? And can private citizens like Rudy Giuliani represent America on foreign policy issues? Listen to the latest episode of What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law.

Episode 33 of the podcast "What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law" takes on the topic of obstruction of justice, in regard to the Mueller investigation and Donald Trump, with a dash of the Martha Stewart case thrown in.

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Earlier this week, the Milton L. Schwartz/David F. Levi Inn of Court held its first meeting of the academic year at UC Davis School of Law.  Because the meeting was on the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, Judge Emily Vasquez asked me to offer some remarks on the impact of September 11 on the law.  Here are my remarks:

Someone broke into a church in Centerville, Utah, last November and attacked the organist who was practicing there. In March, after a conventional investigation came up empty, a police detective turned to forensic consultants at Parabon NanoLabs. Using the publicly accessible website GEDmatch, the consultants found a likely distant genetic relative of the suspect, whose blood sample had been found near the church’s broken window.

What is Congress' contempt power, and how can lawmakers us it to force cooperation with their investigations? Episode 32 of "What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law" answers these questions.

In light of all the recent news surrounding the Mueller investigation's findings, episode 31 of the "What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law" podcast looks at "executive privilege," a term that is relatively new and that rarely has been tested in court.

The latest episode of the "What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law" podcast explores President Grover Cleveland's secret surgery, the 25th Amendment, and what the Constitution tells us about presidential fitness, disability and President Donald Trump.

Earlier this week President Donald Trump called to abolish birthright citizenship, which few reputable scholars believe would be constitutional. This latest action on immigration demonstrates what is becoming more and more apparent: Trump does not feel bound to the rule of law. His immigration initiatives share two fundamental characteristics. First, he seeks to reduce immigration and specifically to reduce the number of immigrants of color coming to, and living in, the United States.