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Michael D. Ramsey Professor of Law, University of San Diego Law School |
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Constitutional Law I Spring 2025 Course Webpage |
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COURSE OVERVIEW
Class Meetings: Monday & Wednesday, 1:00 pm to 2:50 pm
Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday, 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm; Tuesday 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.
Textbook: The required text is Gregory Maggs & Peter Smith, Constitutional Law: A Contemporary Approach (6th ed., West 2023). Note: earlier editions are not acceptable substitutes.
There will be supplemental readings available for download from this website.
INFORMATION REGARDING THE COURSE
This space will be used for announcements regarding class cancellations, make-ups, optional events of interest, and other updates regarding the course and the course schedule.
There will be regular Monday office hours on Tuesday (deemed to be a Monday), and make-up office hours from 10 am to 4 pm on Wednesday. During exam period I will be available by email and on zoom by appointment. Due to technical difficulties there is no recording available for the 4/16 class meeting. There will be no make-up lecture for this course. We will have our regular class meeting on Wednesday, 4/16, and then meet on Tuesday, 4/22 (which is deemed to be a Wednesday), at our regular time. That will be our last class meeting; there is no class on Monday, 4/21, or Wednesday, 4/23. Writing Assignment #3 (available below) is due on Tuesday, April 22, at 10 am.
The class meeting on Wednesday, April 2, is cancelled. It will be made up with an asynchronous recording if necessary A new reading list (Unit 3: Free Speech) is available below. Writing Assignment #2 [available below] is due on Monday, March 17, at 10 am. NO CLASS Monday, March 3, 2025 or Wednesday, March 5, 2025 (Spring Break) A new reading list (Unit 2: Federalism) is available below. Writing Assignment No. 1 (available below) is due at 10:00 am on Monday, February 10. The syllabus, readings for the first unit of the course, and assignment for the first class meeting are available below. This class will be recorded. Recordings will be available to enrolled students via Panopto. I do not vouch for the quality or usefulness of these recordings and they are not a substitute for attending class. Only students in this course are authorized to view or listen to the recordings. The recordings are only for personal use in connection with this course. Do not show them to others, post them on the internet or otherwise distribute or provide access to them or any part of them. The recordings will be automatically deleted from Panopto after the final exam and you should not attempt to retain them or any part of them.
COURSE ASSIGNMENTS
This space will be used to post assignments for each class meeting; these assignments will also be announced in class. The Reading Lists for Unit 1 (Separation of Powers), Unit 2 (Federalism) and Unit 3 (Free Speech) are available below.
Assignment for Tuesday, April 22, 2025 (last class meeting)
Writing Assignment #3 (available below) is due on Tuesday, April 22, at 10 am.
Optional: TikTok Inc. v. Garland (U.S. Supreme Court, Jan. 17, 2025), majority opinion Parts II.B. & C, available at this link
NO CLASS Monday, April 21, 2025 (Easter holiday)
Assignment for Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Reading List Part IX, focus on O’Brien, Barnes, and Texas v. Johnson
Assignment for Monday, April 14, 2025
Reading list Part VIII, focus on Kokinda (in the supplemental reading available below) and the related set of case notes (available below)
Assignment for Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Reading List Part VII, focus on Kovacs, Ward, and the case notes [available below]. We will start with the Brown and Stevens cases from the previous assignment.
Assignment for Monday, April 7, 2025
Reading List Part VI, focus on Stevens and (especially) Brown in the supplemental reading
NO CLASS Wednesday, April 2, 2025 (class cancelled)
Assignment for Monday, March 31, 2025
Reading List Part IV, focus on Roth, Miller, Ferber and the Part 3 case notes [available below] Reading List Part V, focus on NYT v. Sullivan, Hustler and Alvarez
Assignment for Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Reading List Part III.B, C & D, focus Snyder, Cohen, and the Part 2 case notes [available below]
Assignment for Monday, March 24, 2025
Reading List Part II.D & E, focus on the case notes [available below] Reading List Part III.A, focus on Chaplinsky
Assignment for Wednesday, March 19, 2025
New Reading List (Unit 3, First Amendment) [available below], Part I and Part II.A, B & C, focus on Brandenburg v. Ohio and the Pentagon Papers case
Assignment for Monday, March 17, 2025
Reading List Part VIII, focus on Baldwin and Piper
Writing Assignment No. 2 (available below) is due on Monday, March 17, at 10 am.
Assignment for Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Reading List Part VII, focus on Hughes v. Oklahoma, Philadelphia v. New Jersey, Kassel v. Consolidated Freightways and the cases in the supplemental reading (Taylor and Hunt)
Assignment for Monday, March 10, 2025
Reading List Part VI, focus on Crosby and Gade in the supplemental reading [available below] and Silkwood in the text.
NO CLASS Monday, March 3, 2025 or Wednesday, March 5, 2025 (Spring Break)
Assignment for Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Reading List Part V, focus on Gregory and Bond in the supplemental reading [available below] and New York v. U.S. and Printz v. U.S. in the text
Assignment for Monday, February 24, 2025
Reading List Part IV.A (taxing power), focus on NFIB v. Sebelius [part 2]
Reading List Part IV.B (spending power), focus on South Dakota v. Dole and NFIB v. Sebelius [part 3]
Assignment for Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Reading List Part III, focus on Lopez, Morrison, Raich, and NFIB v. Sebelius [Part 1].
Assignment for Monday, February 17, 2025
New Reading List [available below], Part II.B, C & D, focus on Jones & Laughlin, Wickard, Heart of Atlanta and McClung
Assignment for Wednesday, February 12, 2025
New Reading List [available below], Part I and Part II.A, focus on McCulloch and Gibbons.
Assignment for Monday, February 10, 2025
Reading List Part V.D, E & F, focus on Nixon v. United States and on Zivotofsky v. Clinton in the supplemental reading.
Writing Assignment No. 1 (available below) is due at 10:00 am on Monday, February 10.
Assignment for Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Reading List Part V.A, B & C (standing), focus on Lujan and the Massachusetts v. EPA case in the supplemental reading (available below)
Assignment for Monday, February 3, 2025
Reading List Part IV, focus on Marbury v. Madison
Assignment for Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Reading List Part III.F & G, focus on Morrison v. Olson and Seila Law v. CFPB. We will also consider Myers and Humphreys from the previous assignment.
Assignment for Monday, January 27, 2025
Reading List Part III.C, D & E, focus on Lucia and Bowsher Re-read Article II, Section 2 relating to appointments
Assignment for Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Reading List Part III.A & B, focus on Whitman and Chadha, plus Justice Gorsuch’s dissent in Gundy and related notes and comments (in the supplement available below)
NO CLASS Monday, January 20, 2025 (King holiday)
Assignment for Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Reading List Part II.G & H, focus on U.S. v. Nixon, Nixon v. Fitzgerald, Clinton v. Jones and especially Trump v. United States Reading List Part II.I (summary and review)
Supplemental Reading #3 (Reading List Part II.H, excerpting Trump v. United States) is available below.
Assignment for Monday, January 13, 2025
Reading List Part II.D, E & F, focus on Dames & Moore, Zivotofsky and Hamdi. Consider how these cases should be analyzed under the frameworks developed by the different Justices in Youngstown.
Supplemental Reading #2 (Reading List Part II.D, excerpting the Zivotofsky case) is available below.
Assignment for Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Reading List Part II.A, B & C, focus on Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer (the Steel Seizure case), opinions of Justices Black, Frankfurter, Jackson and Vinson.
Supplemental Reading #1 (Reading List Part II.B) is available below.
Assignment for Monday, January 6, 2025
Text of the Constitution (pages 1571-1589 of the casebook), focus on Articles I, II, III and VI, and Amendment I.
Text, pp. 1-22 (introduction).
Consider and be prepared to discuss the following: Why do we need a Constitution? What purposes does a constitutional system serve, as compared to a system of simple majority rule? How is Constitutional Law different from other law? What are the sources of Constitutional Law?
COURSE DOWNLOADS
Reading List -- Unit 1 (separation of powers)
Supplemental Reading #1: Historical Introduction to Executive Power (for 1/8) Supplemental Reading #2: Zivotofsky v. Kerry (excerpt) (for 1/13) Supplemental Reading #3: Trump v. United States (excerpts) (for 1/15) Supplemental Reading #4: Gundy v. United States (Gorsuch dissent) (excerpts) (for 1/22) Supplemental Reading #5: Massachusetts v. EPA and Clapper v. Amnesty International (for 2/5) Supplemental Reading #6: Zivotofsky v. Clinton (for 2/10)
Writing Assignment #1 (separation of powers) (due 2/10 at 10:00 am)
Reading List -- Unit 2 (Federalism)
Supplemental Reading #7: Gregory v. Ashcroft and Bond v. United States (for 2/26) Supplemental Reading #8: Crosby and Gade excerpts (for 3/10) Supplemental Reading #9: Dormant Commerce Clause excerpts (for 3/12)
Writing Assignment #2 (federalism) (due 3/17 at 10 am)
Reading List -- Unit 3 (Free Speech)
Free Speech case notes, part 1 (for 3/24) Free Speech case notes, part 2 (for 3/26) Free Speech case notes, part 3 (for 3/31) Supplemental Reading #10: Brown v. Entertainment Merchants (for 4/7) Free Speech case notes, part 4 (for 4/9) Supplemental Reading #11: U.S. v. Kokinda (for 4/14 Free Speech case notes, part 5 (for 4/14)
Writing Assignment #3 (First Amendment) (due 4/22 at 10 am)
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