Contrary to common understanding, trials do not resolve the vast majority of cases in the criminal legal system. Rather, in state and federal courts alike, over ninety percent of cases are resolved by guilty pleas. This course reflects this reality and examines the broad array of sanctions that governments impose on convicted individuals, ranging from acknowledged punishments such as incarceration, capital punishment, fines, and probation and parole, to nominally civil sanctions such as loss of the right to vote, possess a firearm, and serve on a jury, and being subject to deportation and sex offender registration and community notification (a.k.a. "Megan's Laws"). The course will also examine the rationales and justifications advanced in support of government authority to sanction individuals, and the role played by constitutional law, statutes, regulations, and public policy in government social control efforts.
The course will cover historical bioethical incidents that shaped racially marginalized individuals' relationships with healthcare and science. It will also examine healthcare, bioethics, and the law through the lens of the Black American experience in law and policy. Lastly, it will also cover various approaches to integrating equitable principles into the practice of law.
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.
This course will broadly study American poverty, poverty programs, and constitutional, federal, state, and municipal laws that directly affect the poor. Students will survey wealth disparities in the U.S. through demographic data relating to income, educational attainment, housing, access to medical care, and voting.
A two-credit seminar-style course in which students study recent developments in key areas of employment law including, but not limited to, discrimination; harassment; retaliation; accommodation; wages and hours; safety and health; labor law; and common-law claims. The course often focuses on circuit splits and recent agency rulings. Each student must write a research paper and make a class presentation on the research.
This course provides students with a broad survey of the body of law that empowers, limits, and enables the U.S. government to preserve, protect, and defend the nation’s security. Course readings focus on primary sources of applicable law, including U.S. constitutional provisions, federal statutes, executive orders, federal regulations, presidential and departmental directives, judicial rulings, treaties and other international agreements, and customary international law. Areas of security covered in this course include national uses of force, armed conflict, public order, border security, maritime security, airspace security, space security, cyberspace security, counter-terrorism, political security, economic security, public health security, and security administration. Legal issues are examined at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of governance. Classroom discussions analyze real-world investigations and realistic scenarios, as well as provide practical insights from a practitioner’s perspective.
This course will explore religious freedom as defined by the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Described as the “first freedom,” the concept of religious freedom has figured prominently in a variety of culture clashes during the past few decades, including same-sex marriage; racial justice advocacy; reproductive rights; immigration; and pandemic-related regulations. These clashes have legal implications as the Supreme Court has considered a religion-related case almost every year of the Roberts Court. While principally focused on the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses, this course will also give attention to other aspects of religious freedom such as the relevant aspects of the Free Speech Clause and federal statutes and state laws relating to religious freedom. This course will offer a greater examination of religious freedom than provided in Constitutional Law classes by exploring familiar topics and cases in greater depth, while also introducing new areas for analysis and discussion. Major topics will include the sociological foundation for religion; the history of religious freedom in the United States; the current law governing religious accommodations; and the current law implementing the Establishment Clause.
This course focuses on the basics of copyright law, including the subject matter of copyright; how copyright is secured and maintained; the scope of protection; and the duration, renewal, and transfer of rights. It also explores the enforcement of copyright, the impact of new technologies, and issues relating to access and use of copyrightable subject matter.
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.
Introduces U.S. housing law and policy with a focus on low and moderate income tenants as well as homeowners. Examines the history of housing policies and problems, public housing and federally subsidized housing, habitability and code enforcement, foreclosure, gentrification, eviction, and fair housing law. Students will develop an understanding of the legal, social, and historic underpinnings of contemporary housing challenges, and how these insights inform advocacy strategies to promote housing justice.
This seminar will examine and assess the legal regimes nations have developed to address international and global environmental problems, including climate change, ozone depletion, marine pollution, and the extinction of species.