Constitutional Law: Judicial Review, Federalism, and Individual Rights
What the MEE tests
Constitutional Law tests the limits on government power and the protection of individual rights. Expect standing, Congress's powers, the Dormant Commerce Clause, state action, due process, equal protection, and the First Amendment.
Core rules
- Standing: injury in fact, causation, and redressability. Taxpayer standing is narrow; third-party standing requires a close relationship and a barrier to the rights-holder's suit.
- Congressional power: Commerce Clause reaches channels, instrumentalities, and activities with a substantial effect on interstate commerce. Taxing and spending power supports conditions that are unambiguous, related to the federal interest, and not coercive. §5 of the Fourteenth Amendment must be congruent and proportional.
- Dormant Commerce Clause: state laws that discriminate against interstate commerce face strict scrutiny; nondiscriminatory laws are upheld unless the burden clearly exceeds local benefits.
- Individual rights: due process protects life, liberty, and property; equal protection uses rational basis, intermediate scrutiny, or strict scrutiny. First Amendment speech is content-based or content-neutral; time, place, and manner rules must be narrowly tailored and leave open alternatives.
Worked example
A city bans all yard signs except official government flags. The ban is content-based because it favors government speech and excludes private messages. Content-based restrictions must survive strict scrutiny: a compelling interest and narrow tailoring. Aesthetic interests rarely justify a total ban when less restrictive limits on size, duration, or placement exist. The ordinance likely violates the First Amendment. If the law were a neutral size limit, it would be analyzed as a time, place, and manner rule.
Traps
Standing is not a merits question; a plaintiff can have standing even if the claim fails. The Dormant Commerce Clause limits states, not Congress. Equal protection applies through the Fourteenth Amendment to states and the Fifth to the federal government. Government speech is not a public forum.