Kevin, You wrote:
That's not really what I'm trying to say. The question is, is it possible for a ruling to be valid under common law and invalid under the constitution.
I'm not sure your question is meaningful. It's sort of like, "can God make a rock so heavy he can't lift it?"
I think the answer is no and the reason (as you may have been trying to say) is that the constitution is a part of common law, and all decisions since it's creation have, by definition, been either constitutional or overruled on appeal.
Well, contrary to the Subject, Choate's, assertions, the common law PRECEDED the Constitution and was implicitly incorporated therein (as shown by the Subject, Choate's, own recitation of the appropriate Constitutional clauses). So, in a sense, I guess you would be right in saying that the Constitution is a part of the common law. S a n d y