UK Kentucky Law Journal Article Examines "The Legislative Privilege to Judge the Qualifications, Elections, and Returns of Members" with Stephenson v. Woodward serving as the springboard decision

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 27, 2007) − Paul E. Salamanca, James and Mary Lassiter Professor of Law in the University of Kentucky College of Law, and James Keller, former associate justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, have an article in the most recent edition of the Kentucky Law Journal, released today. The article, titled "The Legislative Privilege to Judge the Qualifications, Elections, and Returns of Members," examines the case of Stephenson v. Woodward.

Stephenson v. Woodward stems from a residency dispute in the 2004 Kentucky general election. The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that Dana Seum Stephenson could not serve in the state Senate because she was not a resident of Kentucky for enough time prior to her seeking the seat.  Furthermore, Virginia Woodward was not eligible either because she did not receive the majority of the popular vote. 

Salamanca and Keller use this case as the foundation for the findings in their article.
"Although we take Stephenson as our point of departure, we believe our review of legislative and judicial precedent pertaining to the privilege, which makes up the bulk of the article, will stand on its own. We are therefore hopeful that this piece will prove useful to future researchers of the privilege," said Salamanca.

Salamanca graduated from Dartmouth College in 1983 and Boston College Law School in 1989, where he was a note editor for the Boston College Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. He served as a law clerk to Judge David H. Souter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and subsequently clerked for Justice Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. He practiced law with the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York from 1991 to 1994 and was a visiting assistant professor of law at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans before joining the faculty at UK in June 1995. Professor Salamanca writes in the areas of First Amendment and privacy.

The Kentucky Law Journal is the tenth oldest law review published by the nation's law schools. Publication has been continuous since 1913. Four issues are published annually by the University of Kentucky College of Law. The Journal is edited entirely by a student editorial board, with guidance from a faculty advisor. Each issue contains articles written by prominent national scholars and notes written by journal members encompassing a broad range of legal topics