Libertas: Guiding Questions and Principles for Determining Preemption: Topics

Federal bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes said on Tuesday that Detroit can possibly cut pensions for city workers as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, despite a Michigan constitutional provision that prevents such actions.

The article focuses on the need for passing a state statute or constitutional amendment under the public pension plan to protect the public employees and pensioners from modification by the U.S. federal bankruptcy court to chapter 9 of U.S. Bankruptcy Code. It discusses the significance of the defined contribution and the defined benefit pensions plans in improving the state of public pension funding and enhancing the pensioner's interest in receiving benefits as their property right.

The financial crisis has underlined the difficulties states and localities face in paying benefits to their employees. The most spectacular example is Detroit's bankruptcy, but across the country, state and local employees face sharp cuts in benefits as their employers fight for solvency. A federal solution such as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which protects private pensions, is precluded both by considerations of federalism and the practical impossibility of getting major legislation through Congress. This Article proposes an alternative: a uniform state code, like other uniform laws such as the Uniform Commercial Code, that states could adopt to govern both state and local benefit plans.

Could the Supreme Court's decision bring sports gambling, fantasy sports to Alabama?

Supreme Court Ruling Favors Sports Betting.” So reported the New York Time s the day the Court decided Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, a decision striking down a federal law that generally prohibited states from legalizing sports gambling.

The Supreme Court struck down a federal law that prevented states from legalizing sports betting in Murphy v. NCAA. The ruling struck a blow against federal overreach and restored to states the power to set their own policies related to gambling.

If you think child marriage is a thing of the past, think again: Here in America, tens of thousands of children have tied the knot in recent years, perfectly legally. Now rights activists are asking why a wealthy modern democracy can deem a child too young to vote or smoke, but old enough to marry.

Child marriage has a long and vibrant history in the United States. While activists have long urged legislators to raise the age of consent to marriage—and continue to do so—with parental consent it remains possible for minors to marry in every single state.

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday ruled in favor of a Christian baker in Colorado who refused to lend his artistry to a wedding cake for a same-sex duo, scolding state officials for violating the U.S. Constitution by showing hostility to religion.

A federal judge has dismissed a challenge to a North Carolina law that says magistrates with religious objections can refuse to marry same-sex couples.

For much of the 20th century, American gays and lesbians lived in fear that public exposure of their sexualities might cause them to be fired, blackmailed, or even arrested. Today, they are enjoying an unprecedented number of legal rights and protections

The article reports the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case "Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission" that juxtaposes the rights of complainants Charlie Craig and David Mullins, under Colorado's public accommodations law to obtain a wedding cake to celebrate their same-sex marriage against the rights of respondents Masterpiece Cakeshop Inc. It presents excerpts from the oral arguments for the case.

Lyle Denniston, the National Constitution Center’s constitutional literacy adviser, looks at the controversy over the effort in Kansas to restrict federal gun laws its legislature believes violate the Second Amendment right to have and carry guns.

The author comments on interpretations of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution regarding the right to bear arms, suggesting that it was designed to protect an individual right rather than states' rights to raise militias. He looks at the history of the Second Amendment from its creation in 1781 through the end of the Civil War, covering Supreme Court decisions on its legal meanings.

The article mentions views of U.S. politicians including Richard Blumenthal, Debbie Lesko and Dianne Feinstein on the pros and cons of background checks and gun control measures. Topics include the possibility of increase in gun violence with the passing of the Bipartisan Background Checks of 2019 and the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019; Blumenthal on the emergency risk protection order or red flag statutes under the laws; and universal background checks for firearms control.

Legal marijuana is the fastest-growing industry in the United States. It is premised on the assumption that marijuana ownership will be protected by law. But can marijuana be owned? This Article is the first scholarship to explore the issue. Federal law classifies marijuana as contraband per se in which property rights cannot exist. Yet the Article demonstrates that marijuana can now be owned under the law of most states, even though no state statutes or decisions expressly address the issue. This conflict presents a fundamental question of federalism: Can property rights exist under state law if they are forbidden by federal law?

It might appear that sooner or later states legalizing the use of marijuana, contrary to federal law, will be crushed in federal courts. After all, federal laws, according to Article IV of the U.S. Constitution, are the supreme laws of the land and preempt state laws.

The ongoing nature of the debate over the legality of medical marijuana and how it should be regulated leaves a wide array of questions for property managers. With such a complicated and dynamic issue, it is critical that property managers are aware of the specific laws in their state, and to stay up to date on legislative and regulatory actions.