SCOTUS

education | equal protection

Supreme Fraud: Plyler v. Doe
ByP.A. Madison March 25, 2008June 3, 2017
11 Comments

I do not think there is any other single Supreme Court case in which I am asked to comment on more than the case of Plyler v. Doe – especially now with more press attention being devoted to school overcrowding and the costs associated with teaching non-bona fide resident children belonging to citizens of other nations. I have not devoted any lengthy commentary on this case for the simple reason the four dissenting justices (O’Conner, Burger, Rehnquist and White) thoroughly highlighted the…

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citizenship

What ‘Subject to the Jurisdiction Thereof’ Really Means
ByP.A. Madison September 22, 2007August 26, 2025
157 Comments

Because the purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment’s first section was to end the denial of those fundamental rights that belong to all United States citizens by their citizenship under Article IV, Section II of the U.S. Constitution, it was imperative to first define who was a United States citizen. Otherwise, a state could refuse to recognize newly emancipated slaves as citizens by withholding the right to sue, make contracts, due process, purchase property, etc., in any state they ventured into. Therefore, the…

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1st amendment

SCOTUS Only ‘Assumes’ You Have 1st Amendment Rights via 14th Amendment
ByP.A. Madison March 5, 2007
1 Comment

I was reading today about a federal case (Morse v. Frederick, aka “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case) winding its way through the courts, and was thinking how bizarre current federal jurisprudence has really become. On March 19, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over the limits of freedom of speech in public schools. “I wanted to know more precisely the boundaries of my freedom,” Joe Frederick said when reporters asked why he’d raised the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner….

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