Constitutional Law

Delves into Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court's effort to dismantle the lingering effects of slavery and to align the Constitution with the promise in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal." Focus is on the text of the Constitution and legal doctrine but also on the path-breaking litigation strategy developed and implemented by the NAACP to topple longstanding and pernicious precedent, including, especially, Plessy v. Ferguson, which approved government segregation of the races (the “separate but equal doctrine.”)

In this course, we will attempt to come to grips with the right to keep and bear arms as a matter of law. We will do so by thoroughly examining the constitutional history, theory, and practice of gun rights and regulation in the United States. We will cover the foundational Supreme Court cases as well as the broader historical and political debates in which they are embedded, and the theoretical questions they raise. Our goal is to understand both the relevant legal doctrine and the context in which that doctrine is embedded.

Freedom of conscience and freedom of religion are two distinct but often conflated rights, both of which have been integral in United States legal and political discourse since before its founding. This course will examine the history of these rights and invite students to ask why these legal protections exist, what presuppositions led these protections to be structured as they are, and whether they might profitably be restructured in the future. As part of this course, we will examine theoretical underpinnings of what the conscience is understood to be and how it fits into a general “moral anthropology” (the latter loosely defined as an understanding of how persons determine right and wrong). The tension between personal and communal conceptions of the conscience will also be explored.

A study of the legal and institutional limits on law enforcement conduct in the investigation of crime, with particular focus on the constitutional limits established by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Topics include searches and seizures, police interrogations, and the identification of suspects.

A study of the selection, prosecution, and resolution of criminal charges. Topics will be chosen from the following: selection and grouping of charges, availability of defense counsel, pretrial release, discovery, speedy trial preparation, guilty pleas, jury trials, right to confrontation, jury deliberations and verdicts, sentencing, appeal, and collateral challenges to convictions. Criminal Procedure: Investigation is not a prerequisite for this course.

This seminar explores the centrality of race as a foundational feature of American law. The study is cross-racial, comparative, and proactive, analyzing the converging and diverging experiences of indigenous peoples: Latinas/Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Pacific Americans, as well as different strategies for social justice.

The Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization rejected the idea of a constitutional right to abortion grounded in substantive due process. Scholars and advocates have long argued, however, for the fundamental right to abortion based on alternative legal frameworks. This course will cover the basic liberty/privacy framework as announced in Roe v. Wade and rejected in Dobbs, but then expand the frame to consider some of these alternative frameworks – including those based on other constitutional provisions as well as those based on state constitutions, international law, and common law principles. 

The course will deal with democratic principles, structures and problems including overthrow of democratic regimes fully or in part.

A detailed study of one or more selected aspects of criminal procedure. The topics covered in recent years have included sentencing law, police accountability, and the jurisprudence of the death penalty.

An exploration of how laws address family relationships: the rights and responsibilities of family members to each other, the rights and responsibilities of family members to third parties, and how these rights and responsibilities are enforced at divorce. Special attention will be paid to the family law issues arising most frequently in a family law practice – asset and liability division, alimony, child support, child custody, and modification of prior orders.

This course will include an overview of juvenile delinquency law, as well as criminal child abuse and neglect issues, and a comprehensive look at child abuse and neglect law and procedure, including termination of parental rights actions, relevant federal legislation, and interstate compacts. The course will also cover the major types of adoption - agency, relative, stepparent, independent, and adult - from adoption petition to entry of final decree and post-adoption issues.

In this course, you will be exposed to major court decisions that have shaped elementary and secondary education in the U.S. Although we will at times discuss the legal authority and legal problems faced by private schools and institutions of higher education, the emphasis of the course is K-12 public and charter schools and the unique challenges faced by these governmental entities. A broad range of education law topics will be covered at a very quick pace, including compulsory education; the establishment clause; local board control; the use of school facilities; desegregation; gender equality; student rights; special education; and the rights of public employees.

This course will cover a broad range of topics as we survey the landscape of immigration law: Who is a citizen of the United States? Who else can enter and reside lawfully as a permanent resident or on a short-term visa? When can noncitizens be forced to leave? Who has the authority to answer the preceding three questions? Immigration law is a statutory course, focusing on provisions of the Immigration & Nationality Act. We will also cover important cases of constitutional law.

This seminar is designed to examine concepts of race and racism and how they intersect historically and currently with law in the United States. It is intended to equip students to think critically about legal policy, practice, and analysis and how those areas impact race-related concerns. Typical topics have included concepts of race; race and constitutional interpretation; education; desegregation; and voting rights.

The course will include problems and writing assignments to help students learn new areas (ones we were unable to cover in Constitutional Law I) and explore familiar areas in greater depth. Topics that may be covered will include the creation of the media in the Founding Era, a couple of historical controversies as a lens to understand free expression issues, is there a First Amendment freedom of expression right to receive, in the privacy of one's home, sexually oriented materials that meet the obscenity test (e.g., over the computer, cable, etc.), first amendment rights of government employees, free expression and secrecy orders in civil cases, political gerrymanders and the First Amendment, the tension between freedom of expression and other interests in student free speech rights in public schools, and more.

This course examines human rights law at the United Nations and regional levels and in U.S. law. It also covers international criminal law.

Students will write a biography of a justice of the Supreme Court. The first part of the course will examine the nature of history; the second part will consist of studying the justices students have selected. Weekly films will explore the eras of American history the justices represent.

This class explores a wide variety of issues related to sexual identity and sexual orientation, particularly as those issues continue to push the law to address the wide variations of patterns in which human beings relate. The course looks at the law as it both constricts societal development at times and acts as a catalyst for radical social change at other times. With the law as the starting point, the overarching questions that define the place of the gay person in American society will be examined. We will consider, among other topics, the regulation of sexuality, sexual orientation, gender roles, the workplace, the intersection of law and religion, same-sex relationships, and parenting. Much of the legal doctrine considered in this course will inevitably be constitutional in nature, including studies of the right to privacy, the First Amendment, and equal protection. The course will also touch on basic employment and family law doctrines as they relate to gay litigants. Apart from the substantive law, our doctrinal discussions will focus on a number of larger themes: the nature/nurture debate and its legal ramifications; the public/private distinction as exhibited in the legal conflicts between free expression and “coming out” and the “right to be let alone”; gender roles and their changing place in society; and the equality/diversity distinction, which arises in the context of assimilation versus difference.