Recently in Constitutional Law Category

The relationship between government and religion will once again become a point of discussion at the U.S. Supreme Court, as the Justices agreed to consider whether a New York town could open meetings with a prayer.

Two residents sued Greece, New York, in 2008, saying it was endorsing Christianity, a violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of separation of church and state.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 1983 case, Marsh v. Chambers, that legislative sessions could begin with a prayer in most circumstances, citing the "unique history" of the practice throughout U.S. history.

The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New York last year unanimously ruled against the city's policy in the attached ruling. Still, other courts around the country have found such invocations -- if inclusive and limited in scope -- to be permissible.

The petition will be argued later this year or early in 2014, with a ruling ready by the spring.

The adoptive parents of a child born with male and female organs say South Carolina mutilated their son by choosing a gender and having his male genitalia surgically removed.

The surgery took place when the child was 16 months old and a ward of the state, according to the attached lawsuit filed by the parents against three doctors and several members of the South Carolina Department of Social Services.

Lawyers for the parents said the complaints filed in federal and state courts are the first lawsuits of their kind filed in the United States.

The child, now 8 years old, feels more like a boy and “wants to be a normal boy,” Pamela Crawford, the boy’s adoptive mother, said in a video released by the Southern Poverty Law Center. “There was no medical reason that this decision had to be made at this time.”

The U.S. government secretly seized telephone records of The Associated Press for a two-month period in 2012 in a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering operations, the AP says.

AP Chief Executive Gary Pruitt, in a letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, said the Justice Department seized records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012.

"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters," Pruitt said in the attached letter of protest.

The records obtained by the Justice Department listed outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, for general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and for the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP.

A Jesus portrait in a small Ohio town has come down over concerns over the cost of defending a federal lawsuit against its display.

The religious painting thrust rural Jackson, Ohio into a national debate over religion in public schools.

The Jackson City Schools superintendent ordered the "Head of Christ" painting taken down Wednesday. Superintendent Phil Howard said the decision was made after the district's insurance company declined to cover litigation expenses.

"At the end of the day, we just couldn't roll the dice with taxpayer money," Superintendent Phil Howard told The Associated Press. "When you get into these kinds of legal battles, you're not talking about money you can raise with bake sales and car washes. It's not fair to take those resources from our kids' education."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom from Religion Foundation sued on behalf of a student and two parents. The complaint, attached here, called the portrait an unconstitutional promotion of religion in a public school.

Did the Supreme Court move too quickly to address whether gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry?

Should the states instead be left to continue the gay marriage experiment for a while?

Those were some of the sentiments expressed by Supreme Court Justices as California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, was argued before the High Court.

This full oral argument transcript may shed light on where the Justices stand on this issue. Or maybe not. After all, trying to extrapolate where the Justices will ultimately vote is fraught with pitfalls.

For what it’s worth, here are are some of the Justices’ comments (followed by the full transcript after the jump).

“I just wonder if this case was properly granted,” said Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

“You want us to step in and assess the effects of this institution, which is newer than cellphones and/or the Internet?” said Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.

“Why is taking a case now the answer?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked.

Justice Kennedy, who likely holds the decisive vote, also voiced sympathy for the children of gay and lesbian couples.

“There’s some 40,000 children in California that live with same-sex parents. They want their parents to have full recognition and full status. The voice of those children is important.”

Of course, Justice Kennedy also spoke of uncertainty about allowing same-sex marriage.

“We have five years of information to pose against 2,000 years of history or more.”

Arkansas has adopted what is by far the nation’s most restrictive ban on abortion — at 12 weeks of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can typically be detected by abdominal ultrasound.

The law, the most pointed challenge yet to Roe v. Wade, was passed by the newly Republican-controlled legislature over the veto of Gov. Mike Beebe. Beebe called the law “blatantly unconstitutional.”

The law contradicts the limit established by Supreme Court decisions, which give women a right to an abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb, usually around 24 weeks into pregnancy.

A provision of Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration law that forbids day laborers to look for work violates the First Amendment, the 9th Circuit has ruled.

The provision aimed at day laborers and employers who hire them is unconstitutional and unenforceable, a three-judge federal appeals court panel ruled.

The panel rejected the state’s argument that it can make it a crime for someone looking for work to enter a car stopped on the street. That law also criminalizes drivers who stop to pick up laborers.

Attorneys for the state said Arizona has a legitimate interest in ensuring that traffic is not blocked.

But Appellate Judge Raymond Fisher ruled it would have been one thing if the state simply made it illegal to block traffic.

Instead, SB 1070 only targeted day laborers. And that, Fisher said, makes it an unconstitutional infringement on the First Amendment rights of the individuals.

National businesses and prominent cities filed two amicus curiae briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage.

The groups urged the court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in U.S. v. Windsor and Proposition 8 in Hollingsworth v. Perry.

The businesses include financial institutions, medical centers, airlines, energy and high technology businesses, law and professional firms, retailers, restaurants, non-profit organizations, and several others. Both briefs state an interest for the businesses in their desires to recruit, retain, and secure a talented workforce, and state that the laws in question impinge upon those interests.

The issue of same sex marriage is also dividing the Republican Party as a group of more than 80 prominent members of the GOP reportedly have signed a separate amicus brief advocating for the legalization of gay marriage.

A member of the 80 Republicans has said it would be submitted to the United States Supreme Court this week. The deadline to submit briefs is Thursday.

The 10th Circuit has ruled that permits allowing people to carry concealed weapons are not protected by the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment and gun control remain controversial issues in the U.S. A federal district court judge tossed out Gray Peterson’s 2011 lawsuit filed against Denver and Colorado’s Department of Public Safety. Peterson had claimed that being denied a concealed-weapons permit because he was not a Colorado resident violated his Second Amendment right to bear firearms.

The 10th Circuit on Friday ruled that carrying concealed firearms is not protected by the Second Amendment or the Privileges and Immunities Clause, nor is the right of people to keep and bear arms infringed upon by laws prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons. The Court held:

“Given that the concealed carrying of firearms has not been recognized as a right, and the fact that concealed carry was prohibited for resident and non-resident alike for much of our history, we cannot declare this activity sufficiently basic to the livelihood of the Nation.”

Labor unions filed a federal lawsuit alleging that a Michigan law banning compulsory union membership for private sector employees is unconstitutional.

The right-to-work law, which goes into effect in late March, contains provisions that go “well beyond” the limits of federal law, said Andrew Nickelhoff, an attorney for the Michigan AFL-CIO, one of the unions that filed the lawsuit.

For example, the Michigan law allows for a $500 civil fine and the possibility of criminal liability for violators, which is not done under the National Labor Relations Act, Nickelhoff told Reuters.

The lawsuit is one of three that have been filed challenging Michigan’s right-to-work laws, which prompted protests of more than 12,000 unionized workers and supporters at the state Capitol in Lansing after it was enacted on December 11.