Lehrman American Studies Center

Course Objectives:

• This course aims to provide the student with the opportunity to begin to cultivate a liberal education, that is, an education that will enable the student to think independently and seriously about questions of enduring human significance, questions that are of interest to all human beings at all times. Here, of course, we will concern ourselves with political questions, questions about how we should authoritatively organize our common life. We will approach these questions by studying the United States Supreme Court’s interpretations of key provisions of the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, how those interpretations have changed over time, and the arguments surrounding those changes.

• Generally, the course is organized around the question of the proper relationship between the rights and interests of society, on the one hand, and the rights and interests of individuals, on the other. More specifically, we will explore the following questions (among others): What individual rights should be considered fundamental and therefore protected from government infringement? To what extent should speech and expression be subject to government regulation? What is the proper relationship between religion and politics? What choices ought to be considered part of a realm of privacy in which government may not interfere? To what extent, if at all, should government impose capital punishment on criminal offenders? To what kind of, and to how much, equality should we aspire? Finally, to what standards should the Court look in trying to resolve cases that raise these questions?

Required Readings:

• We will study these issues by reading and discussing key Supreme Court cases. The readings for this class are available through Blackboard on the internet.

• The readings are in a folder named “Course Readings.” They are listed numerically in the order in which we will cover them in class. (The “Course Readings” folder can be brought up by clicking on the “Course Documents” button on the left.) All of the readings are in PDF format, which means you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader for your computer to read them. The first item in the Course Readings folder is a link to a site from which the Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded.

• As readings are assigned by the instructor, students should print them, read them carefully, and bring them to class on the day they will be discussed. You will get more from these difficult works by reading them and taking notes in the margins than you will by merely passively reading them on the computer screen. Also, because we will organize our discussion around the readings, frequent reference will be made to specific passages in them. Therefore, lectures will be much easier to follow, your notes will be more complete, and preparation for exams and papers more effective if you have the readings with you in class.

• Students should also check Blackboard regularly for announcements relating to the course schedule, assignments, and other items of interest.

• Any additional required reading will be announced by the instructor and placed on Blackboard or made otherwise available.

Grading:

• Each student’s final grade will be based on the following assignments, worth a total of 400 points: a midterm exam (worth 100 points), a final exam (worth 100 points), and two papers (worth 100 points each). Participation and attendance will also be taken into account.
  • Tests: The midterm will be held on Thursday, October 12. The final will be held on Thursday, December 14, from 2:30 to 4:30. Any changes in the exam dates will be announced in class and students will be responsible for knowing about them.
  • Papers: Paper topics will be assigned by the instructor. The first paper will be assigned on Thursday, September 14 and will be due on Thursday, September 21. The second paper will be assigned on Thursday, November 9 and will be due on Thursday, November 16. Further guidelines for the papers will be provided when the paper topics are assigned. Papers that are handed in late (without what is, in the instructor’s judgment, a reasonable excuse) may be docked points. Any changes in the paper dates will be announced in class and students will be responsible for knowing about them.
  • Participation and Attendance: The instructor reserves the right to raise the final letter grade of any student who has, at the end of the semester, an exemplary record of contributing to the class through faithful attendance or consistent and thoughtful class participation. Whether or not to take such action is at the sole discretion of the instructor. Absences will be considered “excused” for which the student presents the instructor with what is, in the instructor’s judgment, a reasonable justification. Students seeking to have an absence counted as excused may be required to provide documentation in support of their justification for missing class. Students who come to class after the roll has been called should expect (again, absent some justification that the instructor can regard as legitimate) to be counted as absent and to incur an unexcused absence.
• The course grade will be assigned according to the following scale:

A+ 400-388

A 387-372

A- 371-360

B+ 359-348

B 347-332

B- 331-320

C+ 319-308

C 307-292

C- 291-280

D+ 279-268

D 267-252

D- 251-240

F 239 and fewer points

Class Schedule:

• We will progress through the following outline during the course of the semester. Readings will be assigned by the instructor in class on a regular basis. Any readings or topics to be omitted from or added to the list will be announced by the instructor in class. Students will be responsible for knowing about the change.

• The Bill of Rights, the 14th Amendment, and the Rise of Substantive Due Process
  • Reading 1: The Bill of Rights and Civil War Amendments
  • Reading 2: Barron v. Baltimore
  • Reading 3: The Slaughterhouse Cases
  • Reading 4: Davidson v. New Orleans
  • Reading 5: Lochner v. New York
  • Reading 6: Meyer v. Nebraska
  • Reading 7: Pierce v. Society of Sisters
  • Reading 8: West Coast Hotel Company v. Parrish

• Freedom of Speech
  • Reading 9: Fox v. Washington
  • Reading 10: Schenck v. U.S.
  • Reading 11: Debs v. U.S.
  • Reading 12: Abrams v. U.S.
  • Reading 13: Gitlow v. New York
  • Reading 14: Whitney v. California
  • Reading 15: Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire
  • Reading 16: Dennis v. U.S.
  • Reading 17: Roth v. U.S.
  • Reading 18: Memoirs v. Massachusetts
  • Reading 19: Brandenburg v. Ohio
  • Reading 20: Miller v. California
  • Reading 21: Paris Adult Theater v. Slayton
  • Reading 22: Texas v. Johnson
  • Reading 23: Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition

• Freedom of Religion
  • Reading 24: Reynolds v. U.S.
  • Reading 25: West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette
  • Reading 26: Everson v. Board of Education
  • Reading 27: Engel v. Vitale
  • Reading 28: School District of Abington Township v. Schempp
  • Reading 29: Sherbert v. Verner
  • Reading 30: Lemon v. Kurtzman
  • Reading 31: Wallace v. Jaffree
  • Reading 32: Oregon v. Smith
  • Reading 33: Lee v. Weisman
  • Reading 34: City of Boerne v. Flores, Archbishop of San Antonio
  • Reading 35: Zelman v. Simmons-Harris

• The Right of Privacy
  • Reading 36: Griswold v. Connecticut
  • Reading 37: Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton
  • Reading 38: Bowers v. Hardwick
  • Reading 39: Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health
  • Reading 40: Casey v. Planned Parenthood
  • Reading 41: Romer v. Evans
  • Reading 42: Washington v. Glucksberg
  • Reading 43: Vacco v. Quill
  • Reading 44: Lawrence v. Texas

• The Death Penalty
  • Reading 45: Gregg v. Georgia
  • Reading 46: Roper v. Simmons

• The Equal Protection Clause
  • Reading 47: The Civil Rights Cases
  • Reading 48: Plessy v. Ferguson
  • Reading 49: Brown v. Board of Education
  • Reading 50: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S.
  • Reading 51: Grutter v. Bollinger

Cheating:

• Students who try to present the work of others as their own or who cheat in any other way will be subject to severe penalties, ranging from being assigned a failing grade on the assignment in question, to receiving a failing grade for the semester, to being referred to the administration for dismissal from the college.

Other Policies:

• All students are expected to conduct themselves in class in a civil and mature manner. Anyone who fails to do so will be warned by the instructor and, if subsequent infractions occur, subject to penalties ranging from a lowered grade to referral to the University for formal disciplinary action.