Final Examination: Constitutional Law - Individual Rights and Liberties Fall 1997 Professor McGoldrick Total No. of Questions: 2 Time: 2 hours
Question one The headlines of the Corsair, the Santa Monica City College newspaper, told it all, "Speech on oral sex results in harassment complaint." Speech teacher, Professor Ed Gallagher, allowed students in his speech class to speak on any topic of their choosing but also allowed anyone offended by a speech to leave the class without penalty. One of his students, Steven Feldman, gave a graphic speech on oral sex. (Professor Gallagher later informed Steven privately that he thought his speech was inappropriate.) Several students of both genders in the class left as Steven got more involved in the intricacies of his topic. One female student, Teri Tabb, stayed for the entire speech and later complained to the school’s sexual harrassment compliance officer, Monique Adams, that she was a victim of sexually harassment. Santa Monica City College defined sexual harassment to include "words of a sexual nature that have the purpose of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s education or creating a sexually hostile environment." Based upon that definition, compliance officer Adams wrote Gallagher a letter informing him that he was guilty of sexual harassment for allowing the speech, that an "Official Warning" was being placed in his file, and that any further violations would lead to his being dismissed. Gallagher sued the college alleging violations of his constitutional rights. Compliance officer Adams was quoted in the Corsair article as saying that Gallagher was "clearly guilty of creating a sexually hostile environment." Gallagher sued the Corsair for defamation. The trial court held that the newspaper was strictly liable for any false statements. Gallagher eventually won $300,000 in compensatory and $1,000,000 in punitive damages. Gallagher, out of fear for his job, informed Feldman that he had to submit a draft of his next speech prior to it being given in class. No other student had to submit their speech for prior approval. Feldman refused to submit his speech. Professor Gallagher informed him that his policy was that any missed speeches meant an "F" in the class, but Feldman stubbornly stood his ground. Despite the fact that his speech grades overall averaged out to a "B-," he was given an "F" in the class. In protest Feldman wore a sandwich sign with his speech on oral sex printed in very small letters during all of the times that he was on the college campus. He was told by the Dean that his sign was offensive to others in a captive environment like the classrooms and that he could wear it only in the public areas of the college. Again he refused to comply and after a full hearing was dismissed from school. The Dean was overheard by a friend of Feldman’s telling another faculty member that "the school was lucky to be rid of that Feldman guy and all of his HIV positive germs." Feldman had told the Dean in confidence that he was HIV positive. Stephen sued the college for violations of his constitutional rights. Discuss the constitutional issues raised by Gallagher’s suit against the college, by Gallagher’s defamation action against the Corsair, and by Feldman’s suit against the college. (You may assume that the city-owned college is liable for the acts of any of its employees.) Question two The State of New Mexico passed a new law addressed at collecting unpaid child support. The state law required the Department of Motor Vehicles to suspend the driver’s license of any person more than $1,000 in arrears for more than 30 days of any court ordered child support payment. Family courts and state welfare offices were to inform the DMV of any person in this state of noncompliance. On the day the law went into effect, 11,000 licenses were summarily suspended. Of this 11,000, all but 100 were males. John Happy as the result of being laid off was seriously behind in his child support payments . He did not have any money and needed his car for his new job. Happy challenged the constitutionality of the suspension. A person could get their license back only upon proof of payment of back child support and a certificate for completion of an 8-hour parenting responsibility class. The parenting responsibility classes were operated by state licensed private entities. In order to get a license, the private entity had to agree to teach certain basic points as to parenting, but there were no regulations as to what additional information could be covered. One of the more successful entities, offering classes throughout the state, was operated by an overtly religious group called Finders Keepers. ("The righteous man whom the Lord has found keeps his soul," was their motto.) The Finders Keepers hired only devout Christian men as instructors for their state licensed parenting responsibility classes. Victoria Tall, after being denied a job because she was Jewish and a female, sued Finders Keepers claiming that its hiring policies violated the constitution. Jim Mondrian, an avowed atheist, attended an 8-hour session of a parenting class conducted by Finders Keepers in order to get his driver’s license back and complained to the state licensing board about the strong religious content of the classes. (He was from Taos, and the only non Finders Keepers program was 100 miles away in Santa Fe.) The state licensing program provided that licensed entities could keep their licenses "during time of good behavior." Based upon Mondrian’s compliant, the state licensing board suspended the license of the Finders Keepers throughout New Mexico on the grounds that the religious portion of its course violated the establishment clause. The Finders Keepers were informed that they had a right to a full hearing before the state licensing board. At that hearing, Finders Keepers was represented by counsel of its choice and had the full opportunity to refute the board’s assertion. The state board concluded that allowing Finders Keepers to run the licensing program violated the establishment clause and permanently disqualified it from running such state licensed programs. The Finders Keepers sued the state board for violations of its constitutional rights. Finders Keepers also alleged violation of a recently passed federal law which required that religious groups be treated equally with non religious groups in access to state and local programs. The federal law was based upon Congress’ power under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment. Discuss the individual rights related constitutional issues raised by the above facts.
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Final Examination: Constitutional Law - Individual Rights and Liberties Fall 2002 Professor McGoldrick Total No. of Questions: 2 Time: 2 hours Question one (one hour). A new federal law made more federal money available for public education but with strict requirements. (No federal enumerated power issues are raised by these facts.) Schools were considered passing or failing based upon the results of annual reading and math tests. If a school was failing, the law gave parents the right to transfer their children to another school in the vicinity “unless there were extreme extenuating circumstances.” Bernice Roberts’ son Mark attended Houston High, a failing school. She requested that her son be allowed to attend the nearby Crockett High, a high performing school, but was turned down by Crockett High without explanation. Her request for a personal meeting was rejected. Students transferring from failing schools to other schools received free transportation to the transferee schools. Because of the imprecise nature of school district attendance zones, some of the transferring students actually lived closer to the transferee schools than did the regular students. Sutton transferred from a failing school to Alamo Elementary which was one mile from his house. He received free bus transportation. David, Sutton’s best friend, actually lived two blocks further from the school, but because of the vagaries of the attendance zones, he was a regular student, not a transferring student, and did not get free transportation. David’s mother had to forego a promotion so that she could drive him to school. Federal law required that the test scores for minority students be tracked separately from those of white students. In the past, test scores for minority students had been lower than for majority students on some standardized tests. Congress attributed this difference to inadequate teaching. Schools whose test scores for their minority students were less than for white students were subject to loss of federal funds. Gilgore High lost its federal funding because of this racial disparity between the test scores. Other than this racial disparity in test scores, it was a high performing school. Federal funds were withheld if more than 5% of the student population were illegal aliens. Edgewood High lost its much needed federal funding because of its violation of this rule. Federal law gave vouchers to parents of students attending failing schools, and these vouchers could be used to fund education at private schools, subject to the admission requirements at the private school. Several parents from failing public schools used their vouchers to send their boys to Bowie Memorial, a nearby private non–sectarian all boy academy with a sterling reputation. There was no comparable nearby all girl school. Marge Hill’s daughter Pam had received a federal voucher, but her request to attend Bowie was denied by the school because of her gender. The Austin school district entered into an expensive 10–year contract with the Princeton Review to administer the federal reading and math tests. Federal law had seemed to cover reimbursement for the cost of such testing, but when the federal appropriation ended up covering less than 50 cents on the dollar for the cost of such testing, Austin canceled its contract with Princeton Review after one year and used retired teachers to administer the tests. Princeton sued the school district. Discuss the Constitutional Law individual rights issues raised by the above facts. Question two (one hour). Philadelphia public high school students were offered free screening and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases after tests showed that some Philadelphia public school students were twice as likely as teens elsewhere to have chlamydia, a bacterial infection that often goes unnoticed and can lead to infertility. No student was required to undertake the free screening or the treatment. For any student who tested positive but who did not seek the free medical treatment, the school district informed the student’s home room teacher, who was to encourage the student to seek medical treatment. The students had not been told that their teachers would be informed of any positive test results. Rose Underwood was very embarrassed when her home room teacher approached her about her test results. Rose was in fact seeking treatment but through a private doctor. Rose believed that her constitutional rights had been violated. In protest of this embarrassing disclosure, Rose and other students wore Halloween type masks to protect their identity and in the evening picketed the home of their school principal. Philadelphia law made it a misdemeanor to go into a residential neighborhood at nighttime in disguise, except as related to some legitimate costume party. The city was concerned with burglars moving in disguise on public streets to work their mischief. Rose and her friends were arrested. A school lap top with the chlamydia test results, including the names and email addresses of the students, was negligently sold at a school fund raiser and purchased by the Philly Crusader, a weekly newspaper that specialized in community issues, and it discovered the test results. In its March 12 issue, it announced that it planned to publish a full report of its analysis of the test results the following week, but without student names and addresses. The Philadelphia school district immediately sought and received an injunction against the publication.vThe Crusader then published a scathing article about the local school board. It said that “all of the members of the school board were corrupt and incompetent beyond measure.” Although the Crusader genuinely believed this to be true, in fact most of the board members were both competent and honest. John House, the school board president, sued the Crusader for defamation and received from the jury $100,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages. Pursuant to a new federal law which limited punitive damages in state defamation actions to twice the compensatory damages, the trial judge reduced the punitive damages to $200,000. The purpose of the federal law was to protect free speech rights. The Crusader sold the list of student names and email addresses which it found on the school’s lap top computer to a manufacturer of condoms who emailed each of the students offering free samples of its products. State law made it a crime to sell student email addresses for commercial “spamming” purposes without permission of the school or the students’ parents. The purpose of the law was to prevent students from being bombarded with spam related emails. Big Train Chai Teahouse, frequented by many gay students, sought a permit to expand. The city conditioned the permit to remodel the teahouse on its providing free tests for sexually transmitted disease, a condition that made it difficult, if not impossible, to fund the expansion. Discuss the Constitutional Law individual rights issues raised by the above facts.
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Final Examination: Constitutional Law - Individual Rights and Liberties Spring 1997 Professor McGoldrick Total No. of Questions: 2 Time:
QUESTION I As a result of the recent 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball, a number of laws were passed attempting to address the racial division continuing to exist in professional baseball. (On the 28 privately owned and operated major league baseball teams, there are only three African American head coaches, three third-base coaches, one general manager, and one assistant general manager. Of the last 23 managerial changes, all went to white former players.) Using its power to regulate interstate commerce, Congress required that professional baseball develop a training program for teaching former players the skills necessary to enter the coaching or management ranks. (Failure to do so, Congress said, would result in baseball’s loss of its antitrust exemption, a highly valued exemption.) In attempting to comply, Major League Baseball set up a Former Player’s Development Program, but it limited enrollment to 25 persons and reserved 50% of the spots to black former players. Though no absolute requirements were enacted, it was widely understood that graduates of the Development Program were to be given preferential hiring. Initially, of the 28 professional teams only the owner of the Cincinnati Reds refused to participate in the Development Program. When the City of Cincinnati threatened to revoke the lease on their use of the municipal stadium if they did not participate, the Reds agreed as well. The state of New York passed a law requiring that at least one African American applicant be interviewed for every open position on a New York baseball team as head coach, third base coach, general manager, or assistant general manager. Shortly after the law was passed the New York mets hired both a new first-base and a new thirdbase coach without interviewing any of the numerous black applicants. The state of California required that all baseball teams playing any game in California have on their uniforms a patch honoring Jackie Robinson’s achievement. Again, the owner of the Cincinnati Reds initially refused, but upon on threat of summary suspension by the other owners consented. The state of Illinois disallowed the firing of any employee of any professional baseball team, other than a currently playing athlete, without a full hearing before the dismissal as to whether the firing was justified. One of the issues that was to be determined at the hearing was that racial prejudice was not the cause for the dismissal. The employment contract of most employees of professional baseball provides that the employee can be fired at the will of the owner or the general manager. Major league baseball challenged the law. The City of Boston, Massachusetts required the Boston Red Sox to provide half-price admission for the students at certain designated schools in under privilege neighborhoods with most of the beneficiaries being members of racial minorities. The Red Sox objected. Discuss the individual rights issues raised by the above facts. QUESTION II As the result of the bombing two years ago of the federal building in Oklahoma City, Congress passed a law protecting federal buildings from future incidents. (This law was based on Congress’ power to regulate federally owned property.) Provision One banned trucks with covered beds from ever parking in parking lots within one block of a federal building. There was no similar regulation for the minivans and sports utility vehicles that are so popular with families. Provision Two banned public demonstrations within 300 feet of any federal building. Because of the heightened security risk, there were to be no demonstrations within 500 feet of any federal building on the anniversary of the burning of the Branch Davidian Complex and the Oklahoma City bombing. Provision Three made unlawful the advocacy of the destruction of any federal building as a means of seeking social change. Provision Four instituted a new permit scheme for use of the park like Mall area of D.C. for expressive activity. Any use of the Mall for parades or demonstrations had to be approved by the Mall’s administrator of events at least 30 days prior to the event. The administrator was not to approve a permit for any group whose views presented any security risk to the nearby federal buildings. A group in favor of earlier childhood education was denied a permit because they requested it only 10 days before their event. They had not been aware earlier that the President and Mrs. Clinton were hosting a special Whitehouse reception to promote the findings of recent scientific studies on the benefits of earlier childhood education, and they wanted to support the President’s brave initiative. Provision Five required that groups affiliated with overseas terrorist groups, such as the Irish Republican Army and the Libyan Popular Front, had to submit a list of the names of persons participating in any demonstrations outside of federal buildings. Aliens were not allowed to demonstrate at all. Discuss the individual rights issues raised by the above facts.
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Final Examination: Constitutional Law - Individual Rights and Liberties Summer 1995 Professor McGoldrick Total No. of Questions: 2 Time: 2 Hours
Question One (One Hour - 1/3 Credit) After a busy week in the states, attending four weddings and a funeral of a friend, Grant S. William, a charming young British actor was in need of some sexual release but not in a mood to obtain it through use of his enormous fame, abundant good looks, or affable British manners. When the police shined their lights on him and the Hollywood, California prostitute in the back seat of his rented BMW, the impact on his career and his relationship with his lovely girl friend suddenly struck him. The police did not actually see the actor procure the prostitute so they arrested him "for having oral intercourse in a public place," a misdemeanor in California. In his shame and anger at being arrested, he verbally attacked the arresting police taking full advantage of his full Anglo-Saxon vocabulary in, among other comments, questioning the relationship of the police with their mothers. In addition to the oral sex charge, he was charged with "criticizing a police officer in the performance of his duties," a misdemeanor. The police video taped the full encounter and, contrary to state law, a bootleg copy of the tape was sold to American Tabloid T.V., an exploitative type television program. American Tabloid called Grant and promised not to broadcast the police video tape if Grant would give them an exclusive interview. Grant refused but, prior to the actual broadcast, his lawyers obtained an injunction against the broadcast of the video because in violation of state law. State law allowed the use of video taped arrests only in a court of law and made unauthorized disclosure a felony. American Tabloid immediately appealed arguing that the state law was unconstitutional and even if the law were constitutional, the injunction was not. A gossip columnist for the Embarrassment, a sleazy type weekly scandal sheet sold at the check out stand at American supermarkets, falsely reported that Grant's British girlfriend, Estee Versace, had herself been a former prostitute. Estee was well known in Great Britain because of the revealing clothing that she often wore when by Grant's side at various events in that country, but prior to the scandal was virtually unknown in the United States. The Embarrassment had misunderstood its British source when she had reported that Estee "appeared an unemployed call girl with her stiletto heel collection intact." Estee sued the Embarrassment for $500,000 in compensatory damages--she had lost a modeling contract as a result--and for $1,000,000 in punitive damages. Discuss the Individual Rights issues raised by the above facts.
Question Two (One Hour - 1/3 Credit) Despite incredible odds against it, conservative talk show host Patrick Buchanan was elected President in the 1996 presidential election. With his backing, the Republican controlled Congress passed the Right Wing's Manifesto For Americans. Provision one of the Manifesto provided that all federal government contracts previously granted in which race had been considered as a positive factor were not to be renewed. In order to undo some of the unfairness of past affirmative action programs, in such instances only new bidders for government contracts were to be considered. Race was to play no role whatsoever in the granting of such contracts to the new bidders. Provision two provided that all future federal government benefits were reserved for United State's citizens only, including such universal programs as social security and Medicare. Provision three made all movie producers liable for all copy cat deaths and serious injuries "in which there was a reasonable possibility" that the death or injury was the result of someone trying to repeat a scene from a movie. Provision four mandated a moment of silence in all schools receiving federal funds and specifically provided that no student could be punished for prayer during that period. Provision five made it a violation of federal law for any private company to consider race or gender in making any hiring decision. Provision six placed a cap of $100,000 on liability for gun related accidents in Washington, D.C. There was no similar limitation placed on any other forms of accidental injuries. (Congress has the enumerated power to regulate for Washington, D.C.) Discuss the Individual Rights issues raised by the above facts.
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Question Three (One Hour - 1/3 Credit) The state of Kansas passed the Uniform Car Rental Act to regulate various matters related to car rentals. Provision one made car rental companies liable for any traffic or parking tickets given to the driver of the rental car. Prior to the passage of the new law, Acme Rents leased to the state of Kansas all of its cars for use by state undercover law enforcement officers. Its agreement with the state was that the state was responsible for all traffic or parking tickets received by its officers and that the state would hold Acme free of any responsibilities. Provision two required rental companies to take steps to guarantee that unsafe drivers were not allowed to rent cars. A state inspector had to certify each rental car company in compliance or the rental car company lost its license. Acme Rents was given access by the state of Kansas to its Department of Motor Vehicle records and using the state data Acme refused to rent to anyone with three or more traffic tickets. Because of their increased accident history, Acme also required that all men under 25 pay 50% more than other renters. The state inspector found that Acme was in compliance with state policy. Beta Rents rented to everyone on a first-come, first- served basis and denied the right to rent cars from it only if the renter had a previous record with Beta for being accident prone. The state inspector warned Beta that its own data base was insufficient to comply with the state mandate and, pursuant to her authority, gave it 6-months to adopt more restrictive policies. When Beta did not, the inspector suspended its rental license despite there being no evidence that Beta had in fact rented to more unsafe drivers than any other company. Provision three required all Kansas-based rental cars have prominently displayed in the car materials promoting tourism in Kansas. Companies were liable for a $500 per car fine for noncompliance. Gamma Rentals based in Wichita, Kansas rented cars with unlimited mileage and believed that materials promoting tourism in Kansas would lead its customers to put excessive mileage on its cars once they learned of the delights of touring in Kansas. As a result, Gamma would not promote Kansas generally but would include only those materials promoting tourism in the greater Wichita region. After an appropriate administrative hearing, Gamma was fined $5,000 for its 10-car rental fleet. Discuss the Individual Rights issues raised by the above facts.
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Final Examination: Constitutional Law - Individual Rights and Liberties Winter 2000 Professor McGoldrick Total No. of Questions: 2 Time: 2 hours
Essay Question One As a reaction to news coverage of the forcible removal of a young Cuban boy from his Cuban American relatives and his return to his Cuban father, Congress passed a series of laws, all pursuant to its enumerated power to regulate immigration except as noted below. (You should assume for purposes of this question only that the parents of the alien minor could assert the same constitutional issues that a U.S. citizen could assert.) First, minor aliens who arrived in the United States illegally without their parents were to be placed with unrelated foster parents pending decision of their status by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The American grandparents of Matt, a 10year old minor alien from Canada, challenged the placement of Matt with unrelated foster parents. Second, such minor aliens were to be returned to their home country within two weeks upon the written request of their custodial parent. In the case of parents with joint custody living in different countries who both requested custody, children less than 12 were to be returned to their mothers and children12 or older to their fathers. Lauren, a 14-year-old minor alien from Israel, was scheduled to be returned to her Arab father in Syria over the vigorous objections of her mother, an Israeli citizen and resident. Third, the law said that foster parents of minor aliens had no legal custodial right. In the event that any foster parent refused upon request to turn a minor alien over to the INS, the United States Marshal Service within 76 hours was to forcibly remove without notice or hearing the minor from the foster parents. In order to discourage negative publicity and to protect the identity of the law enforcement personnel, the law made it a misdemeanor for any person to take a photo or any other visual image of the marshals’ performing their duty. Will and Wilma, foster parents of a minor alien, had grown attached to their ward after only a few short months, sought to adopt the child, and refused to surrender custody. With a hidden camera, they took pictures of the marshals forcibly retrieving the child which they released to the press. They were convicted of this misdemeanor. Fourth, in the case of any future high profile minor alien which generated the interest of the media, the law, in order to protect the personal privacy of the minor, made it a misdemeanor to publish any image of the minor child without the prior written permission of the INS or the minor’s custodial parent. The New York Post published a series of pictures of minor aliens involved in custody disputes without the required permission and was convicted of this misdemeanor. This law was passed pursuant to Congress’ enumerated power under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment. Fifth, any alien minor 16 and older could choose to declare him or herself emancipated from parental control, and after such a declaration the minor had the right on their own without parental involvement to petition the INS to stay in this country provided they were otherwise eligible. Minors under the age of 16 had no such rights. 16-year-old Mara filed for emancipation, and the INS granted her petition to stay in this country. Her 15-year-old sister Lara was returned to her parents in Estonia without any hearing by the INS. Mara’s parents sought custody of her. Discuss the constitutional individual rights issues raised by the above facts. Essay Question Two The state of North Dakota, having little else to do, passed a number of laws related to marriage and other domestic relationships. First, it allowed same sex couples to enter into "domestic unions" which for most legal purposes were the same as marriages between heterosexual couples, including the prohibition of marriage or domestic union between second cousins and closer. Historically, the principal reason for the limitation on close relatives marrying was concern for the easy transmission of birth defects which concern did not apply to same sex unions. It is possible though that the state felt some other ill defined discomfort with any union between closely related persons. Todd wanted to enter into a domestic union with his long time lover, his second cousin Adam, but was denied a domestic union license. Todd believed that the law as applied to domestic unions should be limited to first cousins and closer. Second, state law was later amended to treat in one respect male domestic unions differently than female domestic unions and traditional marriages. The law required that each male domestic union partner was fully liable for the lifetime of either party for medical costs for illness or conditions in existence during the term of the union. For marriages and for female domestic unions, the liability was limited to costs incurred during the term of the marriage. The reason for the different treatment of male domestic unions was primarily concern about medical costs related to AIDS, a devastating disease which in this country, excluding intravenous drug users, predominately affects gay males. It had been the state’s experience that despite the marriage vow "in sickness or in health," many traditional marriages were dissolved to protect the moving party’s assets from continued medical liability. The state did not intend to let this happen with regard to a disease as financially devastating as AIDS. The law was not however limited to AIDS related medical costs. Ridley’s dissolution of his domestic union with his gay male partner Scott was final, but Ridley remained liable for the continued medical cost of Scott’s lung cancer, expected to exceed $500,000. Also impacted by the medical liability law described above was Jason who after his dissolution with his gay partner Patric continued to be liable for the medical costs related to Patric’s AIDS. Jason and Patric knew of Patric’s AIDS prior to their entering into a domestic union, and in order to protect Jason’s financial situation, they entered into a contract which provided that Patric alone was responsible for his AIDS related medical costs. This contract was shown to all of Patric’s medical providers. Subsequent to this contract, the domestic union law was amended making Jason also liable for Patric’s medical costs. Third, prior to the domestic union law, gay couples could not legally adopt in the state. The new law made gay couples eligible to adopt, but only "racially mixed" children. The purpose of the policy was to allow gay couples to fulfill their desire to have children while also addressing the needs of the children thought least likely to be adopted by traditional married couples. Rose and her domestic union partner Donna attempted to adopt the two African American children of Donna’s brother and sister-in-law who had been killed during a snipe hunt gone tragically wrong but were refused permission because the children were conceded to not be "racially mixed." Discuss the constitutional individual rights issues raised by the above facts.
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Final Examination: Constitutional Law - Individual Rights and Liberties Winter 2002 Professor McGoldrick Total No. of Questions: 2 Time: 2 hours Question one (one hour). Congress passed the following laws regulating state medicare programs receiving federal monetary support. State medicare programs provide medical coverage for indigent individuals without alternative medical coverage. First, all such programs had to provided coverage for viagra, a drug used to treat impotency in men, but were not required to provided coverage for medical expenses related to the treatment of infertile women. Experience indicated that the coverage for viagra would be far more expensive than that for treatment of infertility. Second, the state had to provide medical services for persons whose religious belief precluded the use of blood transfusions. This law required that at least one hospital within the state had to provide for blood free surgical proceedings, or the state had to contract with a private hospital to provide such services. Such proceedings were often very complicated and expensive, so many states contracted for such services with private hospitals run by the 7th Day Adventist Church, a religious group that did not believe in the use of blood transfusion. Third, drug rehabilitation had to be provided for persons addicted to powdered cocaine but not for addiction to crack cocaine. The overwhelming majority of persons addicted to powdered cocaine are upper income whites while the overwhelming majority of persons addicted to crack cocaine are lower income persons, often African American or Latino. Fourth, state medicare programs receiving federal money could not provide abortion services unless necessary to save the life of the mother, nor were doctors allowed to inform pregnant patients of the availability of such services elsewhere. Fifth, no state would be reimbursed for medical treatment provided to indigent aliens. Sixth, only persons who had been residents of the state for one year or more were eligible for the effective but expensive new forms of treatment for AIDS. Seventh, illegitimate children of an indigent parent were not eligible for coverage unless their parents had subsequently married. Eighth, when all other employment factors were equal, minority race doctors and nurses were to be hired by medicare hospitals over white doctors and nurses. The reason for this requirement was to make the disproportionately minority patients feel more comfortable within the hospital environment. Assuming that each of the above is challenged by an appropriate party, discuss the individual rights issues raised. (Do not discuss any enumerated power issues.) Essay Question Two (One hour) The Kansas state Public Utility Board (PUB) passed the following regulations of private utility companies in Kansas. First, private utilities could not “own or operate any gasoline or other fossil fuel powered automobiles.” The purpose of the law was to force utilities to use more energy efficient non fossil fuel electric and solar cars. Not only were such vehicles far more expensive to purchase, current technology made them inadequate for many purposes. For example, the range of electric cars was less than 100 miles and totally unsuitable for sales employees, particularly those that had to make interstate trips. Second, private utilities had to provide “appropriate on site housing” for government employed security officers. After five years of paying rent for the value of the utility company provided housing, the government employee was to be provided the housing without any additional rental charges for as long as the person continued in the employment of the government security forces. The purpose of the law was to encourage long term employment in these often tedious jobs, Third, private utilities with preexisting long term state contracts with the state were required to renegotiate the contracts and to give the state the right to convert the contracts to annual contracts, renewable each year at the option of the state. When energy supplies were scarce, many utilities had signed long term contracts with the state at very high rates. This provision allowed the state at its option to get out of onerous long term contracts but to keep more favorable long term contracts. Fourth, private utilities were not allowed to join together in trade associations. Virtually all businesses belong to like minded trade associations which are intended to promote through political means the common concerns of the business or industry, but the fear was that private utilities might conspire with other private utilities at such trade association meetings to raise prices artificially high. Such conspiracies, if proven, were already in violation of state and federal laws. Fifth, private utilities were allowed to have inserts in their billing envelopes, including newsletters, provided that the inserts did not involve controversial issues of public importance, such as the desirability of building additional nuclear power plants. Also, advertisements in billing envelopes promoting the use of additional utility services were banned. Advertisements promoting additional conservation were allowed but not compelled. The outside of the billing envelope had to carry the message, “Kansas conserves while fuelish states fiddle.” No body quite new what the state legislature had in mind by requiring such a message, but many thought that it was intended as a humorous slap at the disastrous energy policies of California. Sixth, private utilities were required “to take appropriate measures” to insure that their residential users had adopted various conservation measures mandated by the state. The T.E.A. Gas and Electric Company, a private utility company, summarily discontinued service from all residential customers whose rate usage indicated that they had not taken the required conservation measures. Discuss the constitutional individual rights issues raised by the above facts.
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