American
Constitutional Law
Spring 2019
Week 1
Introduction
Week 2
Historical Background; Origins
of the US Constitution;
the Bill of Rights
Week 3
The “Living Constitution”
Justice Antonin Scalia Speech
on Constitutional Interpretation
Jonah Goldberg, Close
Encounters with a Living Constitution
Week 4
Slavery and the Civil War; 14th
Amendment, Due Process and Equal Protection
Christopher Eisgruber, The
Story of Dred Scott v Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857)
Week 5
Substantive Due Process; Lochner;
The New Deal
Lochner
v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905)
Muller
v Oregon, 208 U.S. 412 (1908)
Meyer
v Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923)
West
Coast Hotel v Parrish, 300 U.S. 379 (1937)
Carolene
Products footnote 4, 304 U.S. 144 (1938)
Week 6
Equal Protection: Race and the
Civil Rights Movement
From Plessy to Brown
v. Board of Education
Equal Protection and Levels of “Scrutiny”
Plessy
v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)
Yick
Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356 (1886)
Korematsu
v. US, 323 U.S. 214 (1944)
Brown
v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
Loving
v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)
Week 7
Equal Protection: Gender
Bradwell
v. State of Illinois, 83 U.S. 130 (1872)
Craig
v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190 (1976)
US
v. Virginia (1996)
Week 8
Equal Protection: Affirmative
Action
Fisher
v Texas, (2013)
Schuette
v BAMN (2014)
Full cases
Grutter v.
Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003)
Fisher
v. Texas, 570 U.S. ___ (2013)
Schuette
v BAMN (2014)
Week 9
Due Process: “Privacy” and
Abortion
Griswold
v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965)
Roe
v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
Webster
v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490 (1989)
Stenberg
v. Carhart (2000) -Abortion 1,
2
Week 10
Equal Protection/Due Process:
Sexual Orientation
Romer
v Evans, 517 U.S. 620 (1996)
Lawrence v. Texas,
539 U.S. 558 (2003)
Week 11
Equal Protection/Due
Process/Federalism
US v Windsor, 570 U.S. ___
(2013)
Week 12
Gay Marriage
Obergefell v. Hodges, 576
U.S. ___ (2015)
Week 13
Trump Immigration Orders
Week 14
Conclusion and Review
General Resources: