State and Local Government

Catalog description

This is a course about who should make what laws and be responsible for which services, and how we should decide. Understanding how state and local governments make laws, share governing responsibilities, and interact with each other and with the federal government has always been an important part of a legal education because state and local governments affect our everyday lives in countless ways. They provide critical services and public goods, impose many of the regulations with which we interact most, serve as incubators for policy innovations and social change, and offer a special (and potentially sinister) kind of political responsiveness. So whether you are interested in real estate law, tax law, criminal law, civil rights, education, transportation, immigration, environmental law, or nearly anything else-and whether your interest is in litigating, policymaking, or both-you will be dealing with state and local legislators, regulators, and enforcers. This course will help prepare you for that work. Moreover, the last few years have seen state and local governments rapidly emerge as major players in a whole host of social and economic policy issues. As a result, the big questions of federalism, power, and accountability are even more salient than ever. This course will explore those themes throughout, while providing a firm grounding in black-letter state and local government law that will enable you to emerge as better policymakers and lawyers.