Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2016
Abstract
In this Article, I use a case study of the Fourteenth Amendment’s state action doctrine as a vehicle to consider, and partially defend, the phenomenon of persistent doctrinal confusion in constitutional law. Certain areas of constitutional law are messy. Precedents seem to contradict one another; the relevant tests are difficult to apply to new facts and new issues; the principles that underlie the doctrine are difficult to discern. They may become a “conceptual disaster area,” as Charles Black once described the state action doctrine. By examining the evolution of the state action doctrine, this notoriously murky field of constitutional law, I seek to better understand doctrinal confusion, to examine why it often occurs and why it sometimes persists, and to argue that under certain circumstances doctrinal confusion may actually be a good thing.
Recommended Citation
Christopher W. Schmidt,
On Doctrinal Confusion: The Case of the State Action Doctrine,
2016
BYU L. Rev.
575
(2016).
Available at:
https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/fac_schol/921