WILLIAM MITCHELL COLLEGE OF LAW

FINAL EXAMINATION

Constitutional Law Powers

Professor Ann Iijima
Friday, December 8, 1995

6:30 p.m.

2 Hours

1. For anonymity, use your assigned test number which was mailed to you.

2. Put your test number on this page and on all bluebooks.

3. If you do not know your test number, you may obtain it at the Communication Center or in the Records Office (Cindy Boyum) during the first 30 minutes of the exam period.

4. If you do not use your test number, you will be deemed to have waived your privilege of anonymous grading.

5. TURN IN YOUR BLUEBOOKS AND THIS EXAM AT THE END OF THE PERIOD.

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STUDENT CONDUCT CODE

IT IS A VIOLATION OF THE CODE:
1. To use any sources which are forbidden by the instructor to complete an exam.

2. To submit as one's own work the work of another.

3. To engage in any conduct which tends to give an unfair advantage to any student in any academic matter.

Knowledge of any violation should be promptly reported.

VIOLATION OF THE STUDENT CONDUCT CODE MAY RESULT IN EXPULSION

OR SUSPENSION FROM THE COLLEGE OR DISMISSAL FROM THE CLASS.

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GRADUATING SENIORS: IF YOU ARE A GRADUATING SENIOR, NOTE THIS FACT ON ALL BLUEBOOKS AND THIS EXAM PAPER. DO SO CONSPICUOUSLY.

TYPING AREA: If you are going to type your examination, the typing area is located in Room 107. You must return the exam to this room at the conclusion of the exam period.

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS

1. This is an open-book examination. You may use your textbooks, text supplements, notes, and student-prepared outlines. You may not use commercial outlines (e.g., Emmanuels, Legal Lines), treatises, etc.

2. The exam has two questions. Each answer will be graded separately and so must stand by itself. Thus, do not rely upon, or refer to, anything in any other answer. You may refer to points made earlier within a given answer.

3. The questions are of equal weight. Please divide your time accordingly.

4. Please discuss all issues reasonably presented, even if resolution of some alone would resolve the problem. Specify all grounds and reasons which support your conclusions, including alternative grounds and possible contrary arguments.

5. If you think that, with respect to any particular issue, there are insufficient facts to warrant drawing any conclusion, please indicate what kinds of additional facts would be relevant and why.

6. If you think that any of the statements of fact contain an ambiguity, please resolve the ambiguity for yourself, indicating briefly the nature of the ambiguity and your resolution.

7. Discuss only Constitutional Law Powers issues discussed in this course. Do not discuss contract or tort claims, etc., that we did not specifically discuss in Constitutional Law Powers.

8. Nuts and Bolts - Please:

a. Write on one side of each page only.

b. Type or write with a pen.

c. USE COMPLETE SENTENCES. I WILL NOT GRADE OUTLINES.

e. Write legibly -- if I cannot read it, I cannot give you credit for what you have written.

FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS WILL RESULT IN LOST POINTS.

QUESTION I (ONE HOUR)

Congress held hearings on the national problem of delinquency in child-support obligations. Testimony in the hearings established that of the $48 billion in child-support payments owed throughout the United States, a total of $35 billion has never been collected. Of that amount (i.e., $35 billion), the so-called "interstate cases" are responsible for $14 billion, (where an "interstate case" is one in which the obligor-parent and her or his child reside in different states). Testimony also established that many states are not diligent in enforcing child-support obligations. Many witnesses urged Congress to make failure to pay child-support obligations a federal crime. These witnesses also urged Congress to force the states to make such failure a crime under their own respective state law as well. This last recommendation was motivated both by the desire to enlist the states' help in combating this national problem and by the desire to create an even stronger incentive for people to comply with child-support obligations by the prospect of potential criminal liability under both federal and state law. At the conclusion of the hearings, Congress enacted, and the President signed, the Child-Support Recovery Act (CSRA).

Section 1 of the CSRA makes it a federal crime to "willfully fail to pay child-support obligations that are either one year overdue or are greater than $5,000."

Section 2 of the CSRA provides that "The Secretary of Transportation shall withhold 70% of the federal highway funds otherwise allocable to a state from any state which fails to enact legislation making the willful failure to pay child- support obligations that are either one year overdue or are greater than $5,000 a crime under state law."

Many of the states had already made the failure to make child-support payments a crime under state law, but the definitions of the crime and the penalties attached to violations varied widely from state to state. In 1994 the total amount of federal financial aid to the states for highway construction and maintenance exceeded 16 billion dollars.

The CSRA includes a legislative preamble which provides: "The Congress finds and declares that wide-spread delinquency in child-support obligations has created an emergency of national scope, with substantial effects upon both human welfare and interstate commerce."

Discuss and resolve the issues of Constitutional Powers covered in this course reasonably raised by these facts. Do not discuss any issue of Federal Pre-emption, Justiciability (Cases and Controversies), the Eleventh Amendment, or any other jurisdictional matter.

QUESTION II (ONE HOUR)

The city of Scotus, Mitchell, became concerned about the shrinking supply of available land for landfill sites within the city limits for the disposal of solid and liquid waste. There are two currently operating landfill sites in Scotus - one owned and operated by the city of Scotus itself, the other owned by a private corporation. The three largest individual users of the two landfills are, in decreasing order: Aquinas Corporation, located just across the state border in the adjoining state of Ockham, Boethius Corporation, located in the state of Mitchell, but thirty miles outside the city of Scotus, and Cajetan Corporation, located in the city of Scotus itself. The rate at which these three companies have been dumping waste into each of the two Scotus landfills are: Aquinas Corporation - 100,000 pounds per week, Boethius Corporation - 75,000 pounds per week, and Cajetan Corporation - 5,000 pounds per week.

The Scotus city council took two measures. First, it directed the manager of the Scotus owned and operated landfill to refuse to accept any waste generated outside the city limits of Scotus. Second, it enacted Ordinance 72-A which provides that "no privately owned landfill within the city limits of Scotus may accept more than 5,000 pounds of waste in any single week from any one person or corporation." As a result of these two measures, considered together, neither Aquinas Corporation nor Boethius Corporation is permitted to deposit any waste in the landfill owned and operated by the city of Scotus itself, and each would be permitted to deposit only 5,000 pounds per week in the privately owned landfill.

Discuss and resolve the issues of Constitutional Powers covered in this course reasonably raised by (1) the city council's directive to the manager of the landfill owned and operated by the city of Scotus and (2) by Ordinance 72-A. Do not discuss any issue of Federal Pre-emption, Privileges and Immunities, Justiciability (Cases and Controversies), the Eleventh Amendment, or any other jurisdictional matter.

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AT 8:30, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR EXAM NUMBER IS ON EACH BLUEBOOK, PUT EXAM (UNFOLDED) INTO BLUEBOOKS, AND PUT BLUEBOOKS INTO THE BOX.

HAVE A NICE BREAK!