Implied Fundamental Rights Flashcards
(32 cards)
When there is a fundamental right what standard of review will the court apply?
Strict Scrutiny
Lochner v. New York
Issue
What is the test for determining whether legislation which seeks to impose restrictions upon an individual’s general right to make a contract in relation to his business is not invalid under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?
Lochner v. New York
Rule
The court must determine whether the legislation is a fair, reasonable and appropriate exercise of the police power of the State.
Home Building & Loan v. Blaisdell
Facts
In the midst of the Great Depression, Minnesota passed a law declaring an emergency and saying that during the emergency period courts could extend the time periods in which mortgagers could pay back their debts to their lenders. Pursuant to the statute, Blaisdell’s period of redemption was extended, unquestionably modifying the lender’s contractual rights of foreclosure.
Home Building & Loan v. Blaisdell
Rule
The protective power of the state, the police power, may be exercised in directly preventing the immediate and literal enforcement of contractual obligations by a temporary and conditional restraint where vital public interests would otherwise suffer.
Nebbia v. New York
Facts
To combat the effects of the Great Depression, New York adopted a Milk Control Law in 1933 which established a board empowered to set a minimum retail price for milk. Nebbia was a store owner who violated the law.
Nebbia v. New York
Rule
Price controls that are arbitrary, discriminatory, or demonstrably irrelevant to the policies of the legislature, are unconstitutional because they are unnecessary and unwarranted interferences with individual liberty.
Does the Constitution prohibits a state from fixing the selling prices on consumer goods?
No, it does not. (Nebbia)
West Coast Hotel v. Parrish
Facts/Issue
FACTS: The State of Washington passed a law which regulated the minimum wages paid to female and minor employees.
ISSUE: Is the fixing of minimum wages for women constitutional?
West Coast Hotel v. Parrish
Rule/Reasoning
RULE OF LAW: Regulation which is reasonable in relation to its subject and is adopted in the interests of the community is due process.
REASONING: The exploitation of a class of workers who are at a disadvantaged bargaining position is in the best interest of the health of the worker and economic health of the community. What these workers lost in wages the taxpayers are called upon to pay.
United States v. Carolene Products
Footnote 4
The court will now defer to the political process almost completely when dealing with ordinary social policy.
Skinner v. Oklahoma
Issue
Did the Act that allowed the forced sterilization of any “habitual criminal” within the state
violate the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment?
Skinner v. Oklahoma
Rule
The right to have offspring is a fundamental right, requiring a compelling state interest to interfere with it.
San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez
Issue
Did Texas’ public education finance system violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause by failing to distribute funding equally among its school districts?
San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez
Ruling
No. Wealth is not a suspect class because it is mutable and subjective.
3 Avenues to the Right to Privacy
- Textual - Focus on the zones of privacy created by the peripheral rights
- Look outside the Constitutional to traditions. 9th Amendment says that there are unenumerated rights
- Use the Due Process clause, think about all of the rights that are fundamental to a free government. What is the appropriate balance between liberty and order?
Roe v. Wade
Facts
A Texas statute made procuring an abortion a crime except for the purpose of saving the mother. The asserted purposes for the law were to protect pregnant woman from a hazardous procedure and to protect prenatal life.
Roe v. Wade
Rule
The decision of a woman to have an abortion is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. As such, the State may not interfere with this right absent a compelling governmental interest and narrow tailoring of the law to the compelling governmental interest.
Is the federal government required to fund abortion?
No. The abridgment or obstacle of the exercise of the fundamental right is not created by the government. (Maher v. Roe)
Harris v. McRae
Issue
Did the Hyde Amendment, that severely limited the use of federal funds to reimburse the cost of abortions, violate the right to privacy, the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, or the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment?
Harris v. McRae
Ruling
An unequal distribution of federal funds does not rise to the level of governmental interference in the guarantee of constitutional rights.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
Facts
The PA legislature amended its abortion control law. The law required informed consent and a 24 hour waiting period prior to the procedure. A minor seeking an abortion required the consent of one parent. A married woman seeking an abortion had to indicate that she notified her husband of her intention to abort the fetus.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
Rule
A law is invalid, if its purpose or effect is to place a substantial obstacle (i.e., an “undue burden”) in the path of a woman seeking an abortion at a stage of her pregnancy before the fetus attains viability.
Gonzalez v. Carhart
Issue
Is the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 an unconstitutional violation of personal liberty protected by the Fifth Amendment because the Act lacks an exception for partial-birth abortions necessary to protect the health of the mother?
