Race, Ethnicity and Constitutional Law

Catalog description

What are "race" and "ethnicity"? How have American constitutional politics been shaped by issues of racial and ethnic statuses? How have American racial and ethnic identities and statuses been shaped by American constitutional politics? Have the nation's basic conflicts been at bottom economic, sometimes expressed via racial and ethnic antagonisms, or do racial and ethnic identities and conflicts have "a life of their own"? Has an "American Creed" of democratic liberalism dominated American culture, with racial hierarchies a frustrating exception? Or have ideologies of racial and ethnic identity and struggles over racial and ethnic statuses instead been central to American constitutional development? This seminar explores these questions by examining the role of race and ethnicity in many constitutional controversies, carried out in courts, legislatures, and popular debates. Secondary historical, legal, political and economic analyses will also be considered.