American Constitutional Development and Interpretation II: Individual Rights

POLSCI 246

This course will be offered on MW 10:15 – 11:30 am, Spring 2021.  Because it is taught by Neil Seigel, one of the best instructors at Duke Law, the course usually fills up. This year it was added late, and so you may have missed it. Please do consider it, it's a great opportunity to get some prep for law school, and of course the subject itself is terrific for Political Theory and Political Institutions concentrations. Sign up now!

Description:
Historical, political, and doctrinal introduction to the primary themes of constitutional protection of individual rights in the United States: judicial review, state action, incorporation, fundamental rights (e.g., marriage, contraception, abortion, and speech), and equal citizenship (i.e., discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and sexual orientation). Special emphasis on: (1) the shaping and reshaping of constitutional rights through cultural and political conflict; (2) basic methods of constitutional interpretation and (3) relationships among constitutional text, judicial doctrine, and robust practices of constitutional interpretation outside the courts.

Historical, political, and doctrinal introduction to the primary themes of constitutional protection of individual rights in the United States: judicial review, state action, incorporation, fundamental rights (e.g., marriage, contraception, abortion, and speech), and equal citizenship (i.e., discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and sexual orientation). Special emphasis on: (1) the shaping and reshaping of constitutional rights through cultural and political conflict; (2) basic methods of constitutional interpretation and (3) relationships among constitutional text, judicial doctrine, and robust practices of constitutional interpretation outside the courts.
Two Dollar Bill Founding Fathers
Curriculum Codes
  • EI
  • SS
Cross-Listed As
  • PUBPOL 247
Typically Offered
Occasionally