TTC Video – Law School for Everyone – Constitutional Law

4.81 GB

The U.S. Constitution is at the core of the American political system. Yet, despite its central role in our lives, this ever-controversial founding document is vague about many of the issues confronting modern society.

Americans wage many of today’s fiercest policy debates and culture wars as battles over constitutional meaning. Constitutional law implicates everything from abortion to same-sex marriage to the scope of presidential power in times of war. Quite simply, many of the most important issues of the day are ultimately questions of constitutional interpretation, and the Constitution rarely answers these questions clearly.

Law schools across the country teach constitutional law, because the subject is so fundamental to our democracy. It’s the area of law that determines what federal and state governments are permitted to do, and what rights you have as an individual. It is, as award-winning law professor Eric Berger of the University of Nebraska College of Law describes it, “both law and politics.”

In this class, you will examine many facets of constitutional law, including:

• How should lawyers and everyday citizens alike interpret the Constitution?
• How should we apply the Constitution to situations the Founders couldn’t imagine?
• Is the Constitution working well as is, or does it need fundamental changes?

Questions like these lie at the heart of Law School for Everyone: Constitutional Law. In 12 lectures, you’ll get the same accessible, well-rounded, and balanced introduction to constitutional law as Professor Berger’s own law students. You’ll examine pivotal Supreme Court cases to learn how interpreting the Constitution has radically affected American society. You’ll consider the Supreme Court’s role in deciding—and sometimes avoiding—questions of constitutionality. And you’ll investigate how changes in public opinion can influence how the Supreme Court interprets the Constitution. While the open-ended nature of the Constitution’s language makes constitutional law often uncertain, you’ll come away from this course with a better understanding of its many nuances and complexities, as well as its profound importance for the future of the United States.

Probe the Open-Ended Nature of the Constitution

Constitutional law, as Professor Berger explains it, is about “power—the division of power between state and federal governments; the division of power between different branches of the federal government; and the limitations placed on governmental power to protect individual liberty.”

Taking you through all three branches of the federal government, Law School for Everyone: Constitutional Law uses some of the most important legal cases in United States history to probe the open-ended nature of the Constitution’s language and illustrate how legal reasoning has defined—and in some cases, redefined—the relationship between the Constitution and power.

• McCulloch v. Maryland: This early Supreme Court case interpreted broadly Congress’s powers under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, thereby asserting the predominance of the federal government over the state governments. It also established a practice of eclectic constitutional interpretation that continues to this day.
• Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company v. Sawyer: The executive branch, led by the president, is the only branch of the federal government that can plausibly act quickly to deal with urgent problems as they arise. This famous case, which arose during the Korean War, offered a nuanced theory of executive power and still helps define the scope of presidential power today.
• Lawrence v. Texas: Some legal cases—including this one about the liberty interests of same-sex couples—don’t fit neatly into pre-existing doctrinal categories. The opinion of this case is perhaps best understood, says Professor Berger, as a hybrid decision blending both liberty and equality norms.
• Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey: When it comes to the contentious issue of abortion, this case refined the analysis originally offered in the more famous Roe v. Wade. Here, the Court focuses on decisional autonomy and equality to support the right to an abortion, rather than the privacy rational articulated in Roe.

What Does the Constitution Mean to Your Life?

Law School for Everyone: Constitutional Law draws you into some of the most fascinating and intriguing questions, issues, and debates over the nature and meaning of the Constitution as it pertains to our lives. Throughout these lectures, you’ll explore how various articles, sections, and clauses in the U.S. Constitution have been interpreted in the past—and how they continue to be interpreted today. These include the:

• Commerce Clause, which grants Congress the power to regulate commerce “among the several states” and which was interpreted to tremendously expand the size and reach of the federal government during the New Deal era;
• Due Process Clause, on which the Supreme Court has relied to protect many controversial liberty interests and to apply most of the provisions for the Bill of Rights against state governments; and
• Equal Protection Clause, which, forms the basis of decisions invalidating both race and sex discrimination.

Enriched by Professor Berger’s experience clerking on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, his eye-opening scholarship on issues of constitutional law, and his award-winning work as a professor of constitutional law and constitutional history at the University of Nebraska, Law School for Everyone: Constitutional Law is a unique look into how we think about and understand the U.S. Constitution. It is both an accessible legal education and a powerful reminder of just how far-reaching constitutional issues can be.