LAW 619 - Supreme Court Seminar

This course will look at the Court’s most recent term as well as the current term; this course will also provide students with an opportunity to meet leading advocates and commentators. There will be seven or eight class sessions over the course of the semester. Students will also attend parts of the annual Supreme Court Preview program, Friday, September 28 (around 4-7 pm) and Saturday, September 29 (lunch as well as morning or afternoon sessions). Over the course of the semester, students will discuss last term’s health care decision, discuss whether the Court is ideologically divided along Democratic/Republican lines, discuss the affirmative action issue now before the Court, and meet with (among others) Erwin Chemerinsky (Supreme Court advocate and academic commentator), Rick Hasen (election law scholar), and (tentatively) John Yoo (former Justiice Department official and academic commentator). Students earning one credit will write three short papers (each around 4 typed pages) about issues now before the Court; students earning two credits (with instructor permission) will write three short papers and one longer paper (around 10 pages).