American Constitutional Development

Undergraduate catalogue

The development of American constitutionalism, considered historically as the product of legal, political, and intellectual currents and crises (e.g., the Founding, the Marshall and Taney eras, the slavery crises, the rise of corporate capitalism, the emergence of the modern state, the New Deal crisis, and new forms of rights and liberties). Topics include the growth of Supreme Court power, the court's relation to the states and the other federal branches, and the influence on constitutional understandings of economic developments, reform movements, wars, party competition, and legal and political thought. Two lectures, one preceptorial.