Constitutional Law

The Constitution is the Supreme Law of the land, and constitutional lawyers focus on the law, relationships, and rights set forth by the U.S. and state constitutions. Practicing constitutional law puts you in a position to significantly impact the lives of many. Consider, for example, the impact of cases such as Gideon v. Wainwright (providing a right to court-appointed counsel for indigent criminal defendants accused of serious offenses) and Obergefell v. Hodges (legalization of same-sex marriage marriage).

Constitutional lawyers may focus on an area where they represent individuals’ rights, or they may advise political subdivisions in the exercise of their activities. Regardless, because of the broad range of constitutional rights and privileges—from the right to vote to public health emergency orders —constitutional law necessarily overlaps with many other areas of law, including Civil Rights and Anti-discrimination, Immigration, International, and Health law.

Constitutional law is heavily litigation oriented, and constitutional lawyers spend a significant amount of time researching, drafting motions and briefs, counseling clients, and appearing in court. In the private sector, constitutional lawyers are generally employed in a mid- to large law firm or a small specialty boutique firm, which may specialize in a certain area of constitutional law. In the public sector, there are some opportunities with many of the federal government agencies and their state counterparts. However, there are also public interest organizations that may provide employment opportunities, particularly with legislative work and impact litigation.

Courses

Courses designated as "primary" are foundational, while those listed as "secondary" contain relevant and related content. "Co-curricular" courses are credit-bearing extra-curricular activities, while "experiential" courses are practice-based offerings. Please keep in mind that the focus of any course will vary depending on the instructor.

Primary Courses

120: Constitutional Law I 3 credits PRIMARY

An examination of the role of the Supreme Court in the American legal system with emphasis on judicial review, justiciability, separation of powers, executive authority, regulation of interstate commerce, and taxation.

209: Constitutional Law II 2 or 3 credits PRIMARY

Law 209 (3 credits) fulfills the upper level Constitutional Law requirement. Law 209 (3 credits) is designed both for students who wish to pursue Constitutional Law in more depth and for students who may have struggled in Con Law I and feel they could benefit from additional exposure to this material. Coverage will track the subject matter of the 2 credit course. Time will also be spent reviewing major themes of Con Law I and linking the Court's approaches there to the Court's approaches to the topics covered in Con Law II.

215: State Constitutional Law 3 credits PRIMARY

This course will be a study of state constitutions. In today’s legal world, state constitutions are more important than ever. They may protect rights that are not protected by the federal constitution and, subject to the federal constitution's Supremacy Clause, may provide greater protection for rights and liberties that are also protected by the federal constitution. The highest court of each state has the final prerogative to interpret the provisions of its state constitution. This course will consider the interpretation of state constitutions and state constitutions as the source of both negative and positive rights.

590: Comparative Constitutional Law 2 or 3 credits PRIMARY

This course will explore questions central to public law issues in the United States and across the world. It will consider the purposes for which constitutions are established, and the processes of constitution-making and constitutional change. Students will write a paper contrasting the constitutional law on a particular topic of a given country with the comparable law in the United States. Weekly films will explore the culture of the countries selected by the students for their papers.

Secondary Courses

402: Firearms Law 3 credits SECONDARY

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.

404: Conscience, Religious Freedom, and the Law 3 credits SECONDARY

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.

405: Criminal Procedure: Investigation 3 or 4 credits SECONDARY

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 identificaiton of suspects. Students who have taken Criminal Procedure Survey in the past or those who are currently enrolled in Criminal Procedure Survey may not register for Criminal Procedure: Investigation.

406: Criminal Procedure: Adjudication 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

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. Students who have taken Criminal Procedure Survey in the past or those who are currently enrolled in Criminal Procedure Survey may not register for Criminal Procedure: Adjudication. Criminal Procedure: Investigation is not a pre-requisite for this course. *This course may be offered for 3 hours during some years.

434: Critical Race Theory 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

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.

468: Reproductive Justice 1 to 3 credits SECONDARY

The purpose of this class is to introduce students to the legal and policy issues currently implicated in human reproduction and give them the frameworks necessary to analyze the novel situations that will undoubtedly arise as family structures and reproductive technology evolve. The class will provide both an overview of the current legal landscape, as well as challenge students to think about what the law governing reproduction should be as a normative matter. While sometimes using international law as a point of comparison, the course will focus primarily on US law and policy.

492: Democracy: History, Function, Achievements, and Failures 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

500: Criminal Procedure: Selected Topics 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

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.

508: Family Law 3 credits SECONDARY

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.

531: Juvenile Law 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

This course takes a comprehensive look at child abuse and neglect law and procedure, from reporting and investigation through adjudication/disposition and the achievement of a permanent plan. Students will become familiar with termination of parental rights, criminal abuse and neglect law, relevant child welfare 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, as well as post-adoption issues.

552: Education Law 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

In this course you will be exposed to major court decisions that have shaped elementary and secondary education in the US. 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.

564: Immigration Law 3 credits SECONDARY

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 on the Immigration & Nationality Act. We will also cover important cases of constitutional law.

578: Race and the Law 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

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 grade is based on a final paper that can be used to satisfy the upper level writing requirement; class attendance and participation in class discussion; and typically, three to five ungraded but required short reflection papers.

588: Freedom of Speech, Press and Petition: Selected Topics 2 to 3 credits SECONDARY

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 to 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 historic 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. Students will be expected to write periodic 3-5 page papers or reflections on the reading or on problems. To satisfy the LAWR IV requirement students will need to do a separate paper (topic approved) and to comply with other requirements. This will be in addition to the weekly or biweekly assignments.

592: International Human Rights 2 or 3 credits SECONDARY

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

623: Great Jurists Seminar 0 to 3 credits SECONDARY

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.

651: Sexual Identity and the Law 2 credits SECONDARY

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.

Experiential Courses

345: Semester in Practice 10 or 11 credits EXPERIENTIAL

This is the field placement component of a full term externship program and is paired with the Externship Lecture course. Total credits between Semester in Practice and Externship Lecture will total 13. The number of credit hours awarded to an individual student will determine the hours of work required at the field placement and meet or exceed the ABA standards. In accordance with ABA guidelines, students work at a placement under a supervising attorney. C-LAW 300.

622: Innocence and Justice Clinic 4 credits EXPERIENTIAL

In this interdisciplinary course, students will examine the legal, scientific, cultural and psychological causes of wrongful convictions. They will apply this knowledge to actual cases by reviewing and investigating claims of actual innocence by inmates and, where appropriate, pursuing legal avenues for exoneration and release from prison. Students will meet for two class hours per week and for one hour a week with instructor to examine and complete field work assignments.

676: Summer Externship 4 credits EXPERIENTIAL

This course is currently available only in the summer. The director of the externship designates one or more cities in North and South Carolina, usually including Charlotte, NC, and offers the students externships in a designated practice area. The practice areas vary from summer to summer. Students meet weekly with the director to integrate and apply the doctrinal insights received elsewhere in the law school curriculum and in the subject matter of the field placements. The course fulfills the practical skills requirement.

Faculty

The following faculty are knowledgeable about the topic and may be a useful resource for you.

Meghan Boone

Associate Professor of Law

Shannon Gilreath

Professor of Law

Wilson Parker

Professor of Law

Kenneth Townsend

Teaching Professor

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