Notes from bar qs

Due process includes the right to decisional privacy, which refers to the ability
to make one’s own decisions and to act on those decisions, free from governmental
or other unwanted interference. Forbidding the use of artificial methods of
contraception infringes on the freedom of choice in matters of marriage and family
life (Griswoldv. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 415 [1965]). Moreover, the Executive Order
violates equal protection as it discriminates against poor women in the city who
cannot afford to pay private clinics.

The acts of the City Mayor may be attributed to the Philippines under the principle
of
state responsibility. Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political rights
requires that Philippine law shall prohibit any discrimination and shall guarantee
to all
persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as
social origin, birth or other status. The Executive Order of the City Mayor
discriminates
against poor women.

May the Commission on Human Rights order the Mayor to stop the
implementation of the Executive Order? Explain. (2007 Bar Question)
SUGGESTED ANSWER:
The Commission on Human Rights cannot order the City Mayor to stop the
implementation of his Executive Order, because it has no power to issue writs of
injunction (Export Processing Zone Authority v. Commission on Human Rights, 208
SCRA 125 [1992]).

Compare and contrast “overbreadth doctrine” from “void-for-vagueness”

doctrine. (5%) (2010 Bar Question)
SUGGESTED ANSWER:
While the overbreadth doctrine decrees that a governmental purpose may not be
achieved by means in a statute which sweep unnecessary broadly and thereby invades
the area of protected freedom. A statute is void for vagueness when it forbids or
requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence
cannot
necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application.

An ordinance of the City of Manila requires every alien desiring to obtain

employment of whatever kind, including casual and part-time employment, in the
city to secure an employment permit from the City Mayor and to pay a work
permit fee of P500.00. Is the ordinance valid? (1989 Bar Question)

No, the ordinance is not valid. In Villegas vs. Hiu Chiong Tsai Pao Ho, 86 SCRA
270, it
was held that such an ordinance violates equal protection. It failed to consider
the valid
substantial differences among the aliens required to pay the fee. The same among
it,
being collected from every employed alien, whether he is casual or permanent, part-
time or full-time. The ordinance also violates due process, because it does not
contain
any standard to guide the mayor in the exercise of the power granted to him by the
ordinance. Thus, it confers upon him unrestricted power to allow or prevent an
activity
which is lawful per se.
RANDOM: MAQUILING vs COMELEC
Decisions of this Court holding that the second-placer cannot be proclaimed winner
if the first-placer is disqualified or declared ineligible should be limited to
situations where the certificate of candidacy of the first-placer was valid at the
time of filing but subsequently had to be cancelled because of a violation of law
that took place, or a legal impediment that took effect, after the filing of the
certificate of candidacy. If the certificate of candidacy is void ab initio, then
legally the person who filed such void certificate of candidacy was never a
candidate in the elections at any time. All votes for such non-candidate are stray
votes and should not be counted. Thus, such non-candidate can never be a first-
placer in the elections. If a certificate of candidacy void ab initio is cancelled
on the day, or before the day, of the election, prevailing jurisprudence holds that
all votes for that candidate are stray votes. If a certificate of candidacy void ab
initio is cancelled one day or more after the elections, all votes for such
candidate should also be stray votes because the certificate of candidacy is void
from the very beginning. This is the more equitable and logical approach on the
effect of the cancellation of a certificate of candidacy that is void ab initio.
Otherwise, a certificate of candidacy void ab initio can operate to defeat one or
more valid certificates of candidacy for the same position