Reading Seminar in American Legal History

Catalog description

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Major developments, debates, and doctrines in American legal history from 1865 to the present; exploration of the historical context surrounding major Supreme Court decisions, especially regarding critical issues of race, class, and gender; track broader constitutional trends such as the expansion of judicial protection of individual rights, the shifting balance of power between the states and the federal government, the tension between judicial review and democratic governance, and the rise of new methodological frameworks like originalism. Prerequisites: Graduate classification.