Constitutional Law II: Civil and Political Rights (333-0-1)

Instructors

Joanna Grisinger
847 491 3987
620 Lincoln St #201
I am an American legal historian whose research focuses on the politics of the modern administrative state. At Northwestern, I teach courses on law and society, U.S. legal history, gender and the law, and constitutional law.

Meeting Info

Harris Hall L07: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

Legal St 333-0-20 Constitutional Law II, Prof. Joanna Grisinger

This course investigates the civil rights and civil liberties protected by the Constitution and defined by the U.S. Supreme Court—including privacy, equality, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion. In doing so, we will examine what, exactly, the Constitution means, who gets to decide, and how.

Registration Requirements

Attendance at first class required. Taught with POLI SCI 333; may not receive credit for both courses. Prerequisite: POLI_SCI 220-0 or POLI_SCI 230-0

Please note: Constitutional Law I is not a prerequisite for this class. They can be taken in any order.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the quarter, students should be able to:

- recognize and articulate the relationship between the Supreme Court's constitutional decision-making; broader social, political, and economic factors; and the behaviors of individuals and groups (especially lawyers and Supreme Court justices);

-be able to evaluate and analyze Supreme Court decisions through careful evaluation of their major assertions, assumptions, evidential basis, and explanatory utility;

-understand and explain the evolution of constitutional doctrine in Supreme Court decisionmaking over time, in order to observe, describe, understand, and (maybe) predict the Supreme Court's behavior;

-reflect on how theories about judicial decisionmaking can help us understand (and obscure) the Supreme Court's approach to contemporary social issues like privacy, equality, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion;

-be able to explain the Supreme Court's important role in constructing and enforcing formal categories of (and protections regarding) ability, age, education, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion, politics, sexuality, and social status, often in overlapping and intersecting ways;

-understand the Supreme Court's role in defining the formal legal parameters of racism and anti-racism, power and resistance, justice and injustice, equality and inequality, agency and subjection, and belonging and subjection in ways that shape both its own decision-making and broader political and social understandings of these concepts.
 

Teaching Method

lecture and in-class discussion

Evaluation Method

Participation; short exercise; midterm exam; final exam

Class Materials (Required)

Casebook (available for free on the Canvas site)

Class Attributes

Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl
U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area