Fall 2000 Constitutional Law Exam
YALE LAW SCHOOLFall Term 2000 ExaminationConstitutional LawJanuary, 2001(Self-Scheduled– Twenty Four Hours)Professor BalkinInstructions1. This examination consists of two essay questions. Each has equal weight in determining your grade. Your answers to the two questions combined should total no more than 6,000 words. 2. Please read each question carefully and pay attention to what you are being asked to do. 3. If anything about a question is ambiguous, decide what you think is meant, tell me what you think is meant, and answer the question accordingly. No reasonable resolution of an ambiguity will be penalized. If you need to assume additional facts in order to answer a question, state what those facts are and how they affect your answer. 4. You may either type your exam (which I prefer) or use blue books. If the latter, please use a separate blue book for each question. Mark the number of the question on the front of the blue book. If you need more than one blue book for a question, that is fine, but indicate on each blue book which question it answers and in what order it is to be read. Write on only one side of the page. Skip every other line. The easier your answer is to read, the more appeal it will have when it is viewed at 2:00 in the morning. 5. Think before you write. Organize your answer. You get extra points for clarity and succinctness. You get penalized for an answer which is disorganized and confusing. 6. This exam is open book. 7. Good luck. Question One In response to continuing complaints by African Americans and Latinos about the practice of “racial profiling,” Congress passed the Fairness in Law Enforcement Act of 2001. The Act contains three parts that concern racial profiling. Section 201(a) of the act requires state and local law enforcement officials to compile annual reports on the practices of police officers, peace officers, highway patrol officers and related law enforcement officials. Each time such an officer stops a motor vehicle the officer is required to compile the following information and submit it to the law enforcement agency that employs the officer: (1) the age, gender, race, and ethnicity of the individual or individuals stopped; Section 201(b) requires state and local law enforcement agencies to compile this data into annual reports and submit them both to the attorney general of their state and to the Justice Department. These reports must include the following information: (1) the total number of vehicles stopped by law enforcement officials during the previous calendar year; Section 201(c) requires law enforcement agencies at both the state and local levels to adopt policies on traffic stops with the following features: (1) They must prohibit the practice of routinely stopping members of minority groups for violations of vehicle laws as a pretext for investigating other violations of criminal law. “Minority groups” are defined as individuals of African, Hispanic, Native American or Asian descent. Discuss the constitutionality of the above statute. How would your answer change if sections 201(a),(b), and (c) were mandatory only as a condition of receipt of (a) federal funds earmarked for highway maintenance and improvement? (b) federal funds that were specifically appropriated to assist the states in enforcing the Act? Question Two Please read the Supreme Court’s opinions in Bush v. Gore, 2000 U.S. LEXIS 8277 (December 9, 2000)(issuing a stay), and 2000 U.S. LEXIS 8430 (December 12, 2000)(per curiam)(halting the recount in Florida and remanding to the Florida Supreme Court). Given your understanding of the appropriate role of the Supreme Court in the American constitutional system, how would you assess the Supreme Court’s performance in the case of Bush v. Gore compared to its performance in the following cases? (Please choose three or four examples from the following list in order to make your comparisons.) (1) Marbury v. Madison In answering this question you make take as a theme any of the issues we have discussed in this course, including but not limited to the purpose and nature of judicial review in the American constitutional order, the proper methods of constitutional interpretation, and the proper relationship between law and politics. END OF EXAMINATION
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