Constitutional Law
What the exam tests
Constitutional Law tests judicial review, federalism, separation of powers, due process, equal protection, and the First Amendment. Maine’s UBE format asks you to identify the standard of review before analyzing facts.
Core rules
- Standing. Injury in fact, causation, and redressability. Taxpayer standing is narrow; third-party standing requires a close relationship and impaired self-advocacy. Ripeness and mootness are separate justiciability limits.
- Federal power. Commerce power reaches channels, instrumentalities, and activities substantially affecting interstate commerce. Spending power conditions must be for the general welfare, unambiguous, related, and not coercive. Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment must be congruent and proportional.
- Dormant Commerce Clause. Discriminatory state laws face strict scrutiny; nondiscriminatory laws use balancing. Market-participant and subsidy exceptions apply.
- Due process and equal protection. Procedural due process uses Mathews v. Eldridge. Substantive due process protects fundamental rights under strict scrutiny; economic regulations get rational basis. Equal protection: strict for race, intermediate for sex, rational basis for most else.
- First Amendment. Content-based restrictions get strict scrutiny; content-neutral time, place, and manner rules get intermediate scrutiny. Public forums, limited forums, and nonpublic forums differ. Establishment Clause analysis now looks to historical practices and coercion; Lemon’s three-part test is no longer the governing framework.
Worked example
A city bans all signs on public sidewalks except official government flags. A resident challenges the ban. Sidewalks are traditional public forums. The ban is content-based because it exempts government flags and suppresses other messages. It fails strict scrutiny unless the city proves a compelling interest and narrow tailoring. A complete ban is not narrowly tailored.
Traps
State action is required for constitutional claims; private conduct generally is not actionable. Do not apply strict scrutiny to all speech regulations. Do not invoke Lemon as current law. Eleventh Amendment immunity does not protect municipalities, and Ex parte Young permits prospective injunctive relief against state officers.