Rewriting the Constitution: An Economic Analysis of the Constitutional Amendment Process

In this Article, the authors develop an economic theory of the constitutional amendment process under Article V, focusing particularly on the roles that Congress and interest groups play in that process. The authors construct a model to predict when an interest group will seek an amendment rather than a statute to further its interests, highlighting how interest group maintenance costs and anticipated opposition affect that choice. They then discuss the efficiency goals of constitutionalism—precommitment and reduction of agency costs—and argue that the structure of the amendment process under Article V prevents realization of these goals. The authors contrast the Bill of Rights amendments, which established precommitments and reduced the agency costs of government, with the latter seventeen amendments, which expanded the federal government and increased agency costs. They attribute the change in the nature of the amendments to the interest-group domination of the political process and Congress\u27 control over the constitutional amendment agenda. The authors conclude that the Founders\u27 intent to put the Constitution beyond the reach of factions backfired: although factions cannot control the content of the Constitution, neither can the majority. In fact, Article V prevents the majority from precommiting itself and hinders its ability to control the agency costs of government, as evidenced by the history of the failed amendments. Although the authors conclude that Article V thwarts the efficiency goals of constitutionalism, they predict that little can be done to remedy this flaw

Innocence Lost: Bennis v. Michigan and the Forfeiture Tradition

In Bennis v. Michigan, the Supreme Court upheld the State of Michigan\u27s forfeiture of Tina Bennis\u27s joint ownership interest in a car used by her husband for a tryst with a prostitute. Surveying its prior cases, the Court found that Tina Bennis\u27s innocence of the offending conduct was irrelevant to the constitutionality of Michigan\u27s forfeiture of her ownership interest. In so finding, the Court relied on the tradition of forfeiture to affirm the constitutionality of the tyranny and avarice condemned by James Wilson-a leading framer of the Constitution. The Anglo-American tradition of civil forfeiture, however, is considerably narrower than the Court\u27s account. The forfeiture known to the common law never would have reached the conduct giving rise to the forfeiture in Bennis. The modern Court\u27s careless reading of forfeiture tradition has allowed state and federal governments to expand forfeiture well beyond its historical boundaries. Consequently, forfeiture has come to be an instrument of oppression that would have appalled Wilson and the rest of America\u27s founding generation

Innocence Lost: Bennis V. Michigan and the Forfeiture Tradition

In Bennis v. Michigan, the Supreme Court upheld the State of Michigan\u27s forfeiture of Tina Bennis\u27s joint ownership interest in a car used by her husband for a tryst with a prostitute. Surveying its prior cases, the Court found that Tina Bennis\u27s innocence of the offending conduct was irrelevant to the constitutionality of Michigan\u27s forfeiture of her ownership interest. In so finding, the Court relied on the tradition of forfeiture to affirm the constitutionality of the tyranny and avarice condemned by James Wilson-a leading framer of the Constitution. The Anglo-American tradition of civil forfeiture, however, is considerably narrower than the Court\u27s account. The forfeiture known to the common law never would have reached the conduct giving rise to the forfeiture in Bennis. The modern Court\u27s careless reading of forfeiture tradition has allowed state and federal governments to expand forfeiture well beyond its historical boundaries. Consequently, forfeiture has come to be an instrument of oppression that would have appalled Wilson and the rest of America\u27s founding generation

Civil Forfeiture and the War on Drugs: Lessons from Economics and History

This Article uses economic analysis to show how civil forfeiture’s role in the war on drugs creates contrary incentives for law enforcement officials and encourages abuses. The Article then reviews the history of civil forfeiture and the Supreme Court’s forfeiture jurisprudence, which seems incoherent. The Authors warn that the judiciary should be skeptical of civil forfeiture and its importance to the war on drugs. The Article proposes a constitutional framework, grounded in economics and history, to limit forfeiture abuses

Civil Forfeiture and the War on Drugs: Lessons from Economics and History

This Article uses economic analysis to show how civil forfeiture’s role in the war on drugs creates contrary incentives for law enforcement officials and encourages abuses. The Article then reviews the history of civil forfeiture and the Supreme Court’s forfeiture jurisprudence, which seems incoherent. The Authors warn that the judiciary should be skeptical of civil forfeiture and its importance to the war on drugs. The Article proposes a constitutional framework, grounded in economics and history, to limit forfeiture abuses

Rewriting the Constitution: An Economic Analysis of the Consitutional Amendment Process

In this Article, the authors develop an economic theory of the constitutional amendment process under Article V focusing particularly on the roles that Congress and interest groups play in that process. The authors construct a model to predict when an interest group will seek an amendment rather than a statute to further its interests, highlighting how interest group maintenance costs and anticipated opposition affect that choice They then discuss the efficiency goals of constitutionalism-precommitment and reduction of agency costs--and argue that the structure of the amendment process under Article V prevents realization of these goals The authors contrast the Bill of Rights amendments, which established precommitments and reduced the agency costs of government, with the latter seventeen amendments, which expanded the federal government and increased agency cost They attribute the change in the nature of the amendments to the interest-group domination of the political process and Congress\u27 control over the constitutional amendment agenda The authors conclude that the Founders\u27 intent to put the Constitution beyond the reach of factions backfired: although factions cannot control the content of the Constitution, neither can the majority. In fact, Article V prevents the majority from precommiting itself and hinders its ability to control the agency costs of government, as evidenced by the history of the failed amendments Although the authors conclude that Article V thwarts the efficiency goals of constitutionalism, they predict that little can be done to remedy this flaw

Unoccupied Band Structure of NbSe2 by Very-Low-Energy Electron Diffraction: Experiment and Theory

A combined experimental and theoretical study of very-low-energy electron diffraction at the (0001) surface of 2H-NbSe2 is presented. Electron transmission spectra have been measured for energies up to 50 eV above the Fermi level with k|| varying along the GammaK line of the Brillouin zone. Ab initio calculations of the spectra have been performed with the extended linear augmented plane wave k-p method. The experimental spectra are interpreted in terms of three-dimensional one-electron band structure. Special attention is paid to the quasi-particle lifetimes: by comparing the broadening of the spectral structures in the experimental and calculated spectra the energy dependence of the optical potential Vi is determined. A sharp increase of Vi at 20 eV is detected, which is associated with a plasmon peak in the Im(-1/epsilon) function. Furthermore, the electron energy loss spectrum and the reflectivity of NbSe2 are calculated ab initio and compared with optical experiments. The obtained information on the dispersions and lifetimes of the unoccupied states is important for photoemission studies of the 3D band structure of the valence band.Comment: 17 pages, 11 Postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Synchrotron radiation representation in phase space

The notion of brightness is efficiently conveyed in geometric optics as density of rays in phase space. Wigner has introduced his famous distribution in quantum mechanics as a quasi-probability density of a quantum system in phase space. Naturally, the same formalism can be used to represent light including all the wave phenomena. It provides a natural framework for radiation propagation and optics matching by transferring the familiar `baggage' of accelerator physics (beta-function, emittance, phase space transforms, etc.) to synchrotron radiation. This paper details many of the properties of the Wigner distribution and provides examples of how its use enables physically insightful description of partially coherent synchrotron radiation in phase space