Constitutional Law Flashcards

A zoning board denies a variance to a landowner, leaving the land with some economically viable use but reducing its value by 75%. Under Penn Central, the strongest analysis is:

Answer: No taking, because diminution in value alone does not establish a regulatory taking

Penn Central weighs economic impact, investment-backed expectations, and the character of the action, and mere diminution in value—even substantial—is not itself a taking.

A federal statute makes it a crime to burn a draft card. A protester burns his card and is convicted. The conviction is:

Answer: Valid under O'Brien, because the law furthers an important interest unrelated to suppressing expression

United States v. O'Brien upheld the conviction because preserving the draft system is an important governmental interest unrelated to the suppression of speech.

A state amends its constitution to bar any local government from enacting anti-discrimination protections for gay and lesbian residents. Under Romer v. Evans, the amendment is:

Answer: Invalid because it fails even rational basis review, resting on bare animus

Romer held that a sweeping disability imposed on a single group, explicable only by animus, lacks a rational relationship to any legitimate purpose.

During litigation, a President asserts an absolute executive privilege to withhold subpoenaed tapes relevant to a criminal trial. Under United States v. Nixon, the claim:

Answer: Fails, because a generalized privilege yields to the demonstrated need for evidence in a criminal prosecution

Nixon recognized a qualified privilege for presidential communications but held it must yield to the specific need for evidence in a pending criminal case.

A state requires parade permits and gives the police chief unlimited discretion to set fees based on anticipated crowd hostility. The fee scheme is:

Answer: Unconstitutional, because charging based on listener reaction is content-based and discretion is unbridled

Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement struck down fees pegged to expected audience hostility as content-based and standardless.

Congress enacts a law abrogating state sovereign immunity for age discrimination suits under its Fourteenth Amendment Section 5 power. The abrogation is valid only if:

Answer: The remedy is congruent and proportional to a documented pattern of constitutional violations

Under City of Boerne and Kimel, Section 5 legislation abrogating immunity must be congruent and proportional to actual constitutional violations, and age classifications get only rational basis review.

A litigant challenges the President's decision to recognize a foreign government, asking the court to declare the recognition invalid. The court should:

Answer: Dismiss under the political question doctrine, as recognition is textually committed to the executive

Recognition of foreign sovereigns is committed exclusively to the President, making the challenge a nonjusticiable political question, as confirmed in Zivotofsky.