Recent Articles and Comments in Volume 77 (2024)
The President’s Criminal Immunity
By Amandeep S. Grewal – This Article addresses a monumental question that the Supreme Court will soon decide: does the President enjoy criminal immunity for her official acts? This Article argues that she does. The potential criminal immunity for official acts has drawn exceptionally sharp critiques. Some scholars believe that the immunity is nonsensical, absurd, or downright offensive. Judge Florence Pan of the D.C. Circuit even posited that criminal immunity would allow the President to murder her political enemies with SEAL Team Six. This Article shows that the critics are profoundly mistaken. Criminal immunity for a president’s official acts finds a strong foothold in Supreme Court jurisprudence. As important, criminal immunity for official acts applies more narrowly than the critics believe. Immunity would allow a president to fearlessly exercise her constitutional prerogatives but would not allow her to bribe, steal, or murder.[...]
By Samuel A. Thumma & Marcus W. Reinkensmeyer – In this article, the Arizona Supreme Court COVID-19 Continuity of Court Operations During a Public Health Emergency Workgroup (“Plan B Workgroup”) provides an update from its prior efforts, building on the Post-pandemic Recommendations: COVID-19 Continuity of Court Operations During a Public Health Emergency Workgroup, 75 SMU LAW REVIEW FORUM 1 (2022). This article focuses on the Plan B Workgroup’s February 2022 Recommended Remote and In-Person Hearings in the Arizona State Courts in the Post-Pandemic World and developments after those Recommendations. [...]
Donald Trump and the Collapse of Checks and Balances
By David M. Driesen – This Essay analyzes Donald Trump’s erosion of checks and balances during his presidency and how President Trump will likely seek to complete their collapse if he regains power. Its First Part shows that congressional willingness to check presidential abuses of power declined during Trump’s presidency and will likely get much weaker in a second term. It also shows that President Trump figured out how to evade checks and balances from Congress in his first term and examines his plans to further usurp congressional powers. [...]
Equality, Morality, & Religious Liberty
By Mitchell F. Crusto – On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of a specific race-conscious “tool” in the admission decisions of public and private colleges to achieve diversity is unconstitutional. However, in his nuanced opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts seemed to renew the Court’s commitment to the anti-discrimination vision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its progeny. Furthermore, the Court’s decision provided the possibility of an exception for its stated restriction, that is, for military service academies. Nonetheless, the Court’s ban on a race-conscious tool is expected to have a substantial, negative effect on the application and enrollment of students who are African-Americans, their pathways to graduate and professional schools, and their employment opportunities, resulting in what I coin as a “Black brain drain.” [...]