Prof. Susan Cohen

Office Hours

Willis 418, ext. 4123

Spring 1999

POSC 302

AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW II

Texts:

Stanley Kutler, The Supreme Court and the Constitution

Robert McCloskey, The American Supreme Court

Earl Maltz, Civil Rights, the Constitution, and Congress: 1863-1869

All cases can be found in the Kutler book unless otherwise noted. An "R" indicates that the reading is on reserve.

Course Requirements:

Take-home midterm

25%

Final exam

30%

Final paper

35%

Participation

10%

Please note: There will be NO CLASS on the following dates: Thurs. April 1, Thurs. April 8, and Thurs. April 15, because of Passover and a conference. I will be scheduling at least two makeup classes, probably in late April and May.

Were we meeting twice a week for the term there would be nineteen classes. I have listed reading assignments by number rather than by date, as I don't know yet when the makeup classes will be. For now we'll simply take the assignments in order, one number per class, skipping the three Thursdays mentioned above.

1. Introduction

ORIGINS

2. Declaration of Independence

U.S. Constitution

Richard Hofstadter, "The Founding Fathers: An Age of Realism," in Robert Horwitz, The Moral Foundations of the American Republic (R)

Martin Diamond, "Ethics and Politics: The American Way," in Horwitz, Moral Foundations (R)

3. Michael P. Zuckert, "A System Without Precedent: Federalism in the American Constitution," in Leonard Levy and Dennis Mahoney, The Framing and Ratification of the Constitution (R)

Herbert Storing, "Slavery and the Moral Foundations of the American Republic," in Horwitz, Moral Foundations (R)

Paul Finkelman, Slavery and the Founders, ch. 5, "Thomas Jefferson and Slavery I" (R)

4. Marbury v. Madison

Eakin v. Raub

McCloskey, chs. 1-2

CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

5. Dred Scott v. Sanford

McCloskey, chs. 3-4

6. Resolution on Secession, in H.S. Commager, Documents in American History, vol. I, #197-99 (R)

A. Lincoln, "First Inaugural Address," in ibid., #202 (R)

Charles Sumner, "Resolutions on Secession," in ibid., #212

Ex Parte Milligan

McCloskey, pp. 67-76

7. Maltz, chs. 1-3

8. Maltz, chs. 4-5

9. Maltz, chs. 6-7

Judith Baer, Equality Under the Constitution: Reclaiming the Fourteenth Amendment, ch. 4, "Equality and the Reconstruction Congress" (R)

10. Maltz, chs. 8-10

11. McCloskey, pp. 76-90

Slaughterhouse Cases

Civil Rights Cases

Plessy v. Ferguson

ECONOMIC REGULATION

12. McCloskey, ch. 6

Michael J. Sandel, Democracy's Discontent, ch. 6, "Free Labor versus Wage Labor" (R)

Munn v. Illinois

13. Lochner v. New York

Muller v. Oregon

Bunting v. Oregon

Adkins v. Children's Hospital

14. Shreveport Case (p. 264)

U.S. v. E.C. Knight

Champion v. Ames (p. 309)

Hammer v. Dagenhart

Stafford v. Wallace

Schechter Poultry Co. v. U.S.

Carter v. Carter Coal

15. McCray v. U.S.

Bailey v. Drexel Furniture (p. 340)

U.S. v. Butler

U.S. v. Curtiss-Wright (p. 703)

16. West Coast Hotel v. Parrish

NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin

U.S. v. Darby

Wickard v. Filburn

Seward Machine v. Davis

FREE SPEECH AND PRIVACY RIGHTS

17. Schenck v. U.S.

Abram v. U.S.

Gitlow v. U.S.

Whitney v. Calif.

18. Meyer v. Nebraska (R)

Pierce v. Society of Sisters (R)

19. Conclusions

The final exam will be on Monday morning June 7.