(Download) "Rewriting the Terms: The Contract Clause and Special-Interest Legislation in RUI One Corp. V. City of Berkeley." by Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Rewriting the Terms: The Contract Clause and Special-Interest Legislation in RUI One Corp. V. City of Berkeley.
- Author : Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
- Release Date : January 22, 2005
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 316 KB
Description
The City Council of Berkeley, California is well known for its energetic adherence to the left wing of American policy and politics. A ready example is its March 2004 determination that Congress should formally censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney; impeachment was the favored recommendation but was deemed impractical. (1) Such quixotic endeavors aside, the City Council has also engaged in an intermittent campaign against property and economic rights. In June 2004, for example, it passed a resolution in support of amendments to the United States and California Constitutions "to declare that corporations are not granted the protections or rights of persons." (2) And in July 2004, the Council amended the City's rent ordinance by adopting a measure that bars landlords from evicting tenants who illegally sublet their apartments. (3) The subject of this comment is yet another manifestation of the Council's proletarian regulatory impulse. In September 2000, at the behest of a labor union, the Council enacted an amendment to the City's "living wage" ordinance applicable to a very narrow class of businesses operating on publicly leased real estate at the Berkeley Marina. This ordinance infringed important constitutional rights, and its validation by a Ninth Circuit panel majority in RUI One Corp. v. City of Berkeley (4) constitutes a troubling precedent likely to be used by states and municipalities nationwide to justify the singling out and burdening of individual business enterprises. The Contract Clause, despite several narrowing interpretations by the U.S. Supreme Court, ought to shield private citizens from precisely this sort of narrow, opportunistic legislation.
 "Rewriting the Terms: The Contract Clause and Special-Interest Legislation in RUI One Corp. V. City of Berkeley." by Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}