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Constitutional Law

Upon completion of coursework in this area, students will possess knowledge and understanding of both the structural and the rights-based aspects of U.S. constitutional law, as well as the modalities of constitutional interpretation.

With respect to structure, students will understand the scope of judicial review, including the judiciary's power to resolve constitutional questions and the limits on that power. They will understand separation-of-powers doctrine governing the relationships among the branches of the federal government. They will also understand federalism doctrine governing the relationship between the federal government and the states, including the scope of federal power to regulate commerce and to enforce constitutional rights against the states.

With respect to rights, students will learn the constitutional law of equality, including the scope and limits of equal protection claims arising from race and sex discrimination. They will also learn the constitutional law of liberty, including the scope and limits of claims to personal autonomy and rights concerning the family.

Across both substantive domains, students will further understand state action doctrine and the constitutional line between governmental and nongovernmental conduct. They will be able to identify how these core constitutional principles extend into and interact with specialized fields, which might include free speech, religion, criminal procedure, federal courts, the law of democracy, national security law, immigration law, and family, education, or local government law.

With respect to methodology, students will learn the methods of constitutional argument and interpretation, deploying them to resolve contested questions and assessing the persuasiveness of each. They will learn to situate doctrine within relevant historical, social, political, and theoretical context, to combine the core concepts above in addressing complex or novel problems, and to integrate constitutional analysis with doctrine from other fields.

As a result, students will be able to construct and communicate, in written and oral form, a reasoned constitutional argument drawing on precedent, interpretive methodology, and contextual understanding of both constitutional structure and rights. Through the required course together with specialized seminars, colloquia, and cross-disciplinary electives, students will have the opportunity to pursue advanced study and to develop an area of specialization.

Required Course Learning Outcomes

Constitutional Law (LAW-LW.11479)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate:

Knowledge and Understanding of Substantive Law (ABA Standard 302(a)(1))

  1. Knowledge and understanding of the scope and limits of judicial review, including the judiciary's power to resolve constitutional questions.
  2. Knowledge and understanding of separation-of-powers doctrine governing the relationships among the branches of the federal government.
  3. Knowledge and understanding of federalism doctrine and the allocation of authority between the federal and state governments, including the scope of federal regulatory power.
  4. Knowledge and understanding of the constitutional doctrines of individual liberty and equality, including privileges or immunities, substantive due process, and equal protection.

Legal Analysis and Reasoning (ABA Standard 302(a)(2), (3))

  1. The ability to identify, apply, and critically evaluate the available methods of constitutional interpretation, and to assess their relative persuasiveness in resolving contested constitutional questions.
  2. The ability to analyze and apply constitutional doctrine, both structural and rights-based, to novel or hypothetical fact patterns.
  3. The ability to situate constitutional doctrine and theory within relevant historical, social, and political context, and to critically assess how that context shapes constitutional development.
  4. The ability to analyze the interconnections among structural constitutional doctrines (judicial review, separation of powers, federalism) and rights-based doctrines (liberty and equality), and to apply them in combination to complex constitutional problems.

Other Professional Skills (ABA Standard 302(a)(4), (b))

  1. The ability to construct and communicate, in written and oral form, a reasoned constitutional argument that draws on relevant precedent, interpretive methodology, and contextual understanding.
The First Amendment's Religion Clauses (LAW-LW.12135)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate:

Knowledge and Understanding of Substantive Law (ABA Standard 302(a)(1))

  1. Knowledge and understanding of the constitutional text, history, and doctrinal development of the Establishment Clause, including Supreme Court interpretation of its prohibition on government entanglement with religion.
  2. Knowledge and understanding of the constitutional text, history, and doctrinal development of the Free Exercise Clause, including Supreme Court interpretation of the government's responsibility to protect religious freedom
  3. Knowledge and understanding of the leading Supreme Court cases interpreting and applying the Religion Clauses, and the evolution of the doctrinal tests and frameworks used to resolve religion clause disputes.
  4. Knowledge and understanding of the inherent tension between the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause, and of the doctrinal and practical efforts made to reconcile these dual constitutional guarantees.

Legal Analysis and Reasoning (ABA Standard 302(a)(2), (3))

  1. The ability to closely read, interpret, and critically analyze Supreme Court opinions addressing the meaning and application of the Religion Clauses.
  2. The ability to apply Religion Clause doctrine to novel or hypothetical fact patterns involving government action that implicates religion.
  3. The ability to critically evaluate the wisdom, coherence, and practical consequences of existing Religion Clause doctrine, including competing interpretive approaches to resolving Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause conflicts.
  4. The ability to analyze how shifts in constitutional interpretive methodology have shaped and reshaped the doctrinal treatment of government-religion relationships over time.

Other Professional Skills (ABA Standard 302(a)(4), (b))

  1. The ability to engage in sustained, rigorous oral analysis and debate of contested constitutional questions through active and consistent class participation.
  2. The ability to communicate close textual and doctrinal analysis effectively in written and oral form when addressing unsettled or contested questions of religion clause jurisprudence.
Race and the First Amendment Seminar (LAW-LW.12851)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate:

Knowledge and Understanding of Substantive Law (ABA Standard 302(a)(1))

  1. Knowledge and understanding of First Amendment free speech doctrine, including landmark and recent case law defining the scope and limits of protected expression.
  2. Knowledge and understanding of the historical and contemporary role of the First Amendment in protecting protest, dissent, and social justice movements, including movements led by Black and other marginalized communities.
  3. Knowledge and understanding of the doctrinal and normative tension between free speech protections for offensive or bigoted expression and the goals of racial and social justice.
  4. Knowledge and understanding of the constitutional rights of student activists and protesters, and the legal frameworks governing government and institutional responses to protest activity.
  5. Knowledge and understanding of international human rights approaches to freedom of expression, and how those approaches compare to and critique the First Amendment framework.

Legal Analysis and Reasoning (ABA Standard 302(a)(2), (3))

  1. The ability to critically analyze the ways in which free speech doctrine and racial justice goals reinforce one another, as well as the ways in which they stand in tension.
  2. The ability to apply First Amendment doctrine to novel or emerging fact patterns involving protest, campus speech, and racially charged expression.
  3. The ability to critically evaluate arguments for and against reinterpreting free speech doctrine and the broader Bill of Rights in service of racial and social justice, without abandoning core free speech principles.
  4. The ability to draw on comparative and international human rights perspectives to critically assess the strengths and limitations of the U.S. free speech framework.

Other Professional Skills (ABA Standard 302(a)(4), (b))

  1. The ability to lead and facilitate substantive legal discussion among peers, including framing issues for debate and guiding group analysis of contested readings.
  2. The ability to communicate legal analysis concisely and persuasively in short written responses that engage critically with assigned readings.
  3. The ability to navigate a real-time, escalating free speech controversy through simulated advocacy and decision-making, applying legal judgment under conditions of uncertainty and public pressure.
  4. The ability to produce a sustained piece of independent legal writing — in the form of either a comment-length scholarly paper or an amicus brief — that identifies a significant legal question, engages relevant authority, and advances a reasoned original argument.

Multiple-Section Course Learning Outcomes

Federal Courts and the Federal System (LAW-LW.11722)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate:

Knowledge and Understanding of Substantive Law (ABA Standard 302(a)(1))

  1. Knowledge and understanding of constitutional, statutory, and common-law and civil-law sources defining the power and role of the federal judiciary with respect to the states, the other branches of government, individuals, and foreign states and foreign non-state actors.
  2. Knowledge and understanding of doctrines and rules governing federal court proceedings involving states, the other branches of government, individuals, and foreign states and foreign non-state actors.
  3. Knowledge and understanding of different theoretical approaches to the role and power of the federal judiciary, with an emphasis on separation of powers, federalism, and individual rights.
  4. Knowledge and understanding of the history of federal jurisdiction and the development of institutional capacity.