Judicial Review Seminar

3 credits · Law School

This course will explore the defining feature of the relationship between two branches of government: the Supreme Court and Congress. It will investigate the origins and rise of judicial review and its path to becoming the most consequential power in the federal government—the power to overturn a democratically-enacted law. The class will chart the many iterations of judicial review, its theoretical underpinnings, its critiques, and its costs. In particular, it will interrogate the relationship of judicial review to laws seeking to protect democracy and fundamental rights. It will ask whether the Court has overstepped constitutional bounds, whether Congress has a part in deciding the meaning of the Constitution, and what the future of the relationship between these branches is in a time of intense political polarization and gridlock. Prerequisite: Constitutional Law I. Enrollment Limited. [3]