Topics:

Catalog description

Topics and prerequisites vary by semester. The last decade has seen a resurgence of issues related to Constitutional law where political parties, social movements, and interest groups routinely invoke the U.S. Constitution in debates that touch on the most urgent and divisive current affairs. Such topics include birthright citizenship for non-citizens’ children; women’s right to cross state lines seeking reproductive rights under state law; states’ assertion of powers to refuse to assist federal deportation of immigrants; and presidential assertion of powers to override Congress’ statutes by firing civil servants and re-programming federal funds. All of these contentious fights have roots deep in American Constitutional History. This Topics course will provide an overview of those historical roots through fourteen lectures, followed by discussion. These presentations will cover topics that explore the origins and development of key constitutional concepts such as birthright citizenship, federalism, and presidential powers. The course will use critical historical moments such as: the battles over interstate mobility of enslaved and free Black persons in the 1850s; Lincoln’s assertion of presidential powers during the Civil War; the fight over contraception and the Comstock Acts from the 1880s through the 1960s; and the fight over equal protection, due process and scope of Presidential powers in Japanese Internment. History Major Requirements Fulfilled by this course: *2 credits* of U.S.