www.sjsu.edu/faculty/kpnuger
Professor Ken Nuger Office: BT 455
Pols 121a, The Supreme Court Phone: 924-5346
Spring, 2004
Email: kpnuger@email.sjsu.edu
12:00-1:15 T, TH Office Hours: 7:45-8:45, 10:30-11:45 T, Th,
5:15-5:45 Th, and by appointment.
Political Science 121a: The Supreme Court (Constitutional Law)
This course introduces students to the institutional, political and legal bases that determine how the U.S. political system and especially the U.S. Supreme Court interprets how the United States Constitution allocates the powers and functions of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of national government and collectively, their relationship to the several states. Primarily through the case method, this course examines how the Supreme Court has used its authority to define the powers of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the national government, the powers of the state and local governments under the United States Constitution and how these court decisions have altered the balance of power among them from the early American republic to the present.
Required Readings
Please purchase the following:
Epstein, Lee and Walker, Thomas, Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Institutional Powers and Constraints, 4th ed.
Grading
Inherently a vulgar subject but one with which we must all contend. You will have two examinations, one midterm and a final, each worth 100 points. You must also write a 5 to 7 page position paper/analysis on a subject relevant to the constitutional powers of one of the branches of the national government. This paper will be due no later than Tuesday, May 11th. The paper is worth 30 points. If the paper is turned in late, it will receive a 6 point penalty. Students will also occasionally turn in their legal briefs, which will be worth 10 points per brief. Briefs must be typed, not handwritten. If you turn in a handwritten brief, it will awarded a maximum of 5 points. You may drop your lowest graded brief when calculating your grade. Finally, students will be called upon to present briefs of assigned cases. While not graded, the quality of your oral presentations may affect my perception of whether you should receive the benefit of the doubt if the points you earned borders between two different grades. Similarly, class participation can help tip the scales in your favor if your final grade is in doubt.
Attendance
Attendance will be recorded each day but you get 2 ½ weeks (five class days) of paid vacation (what a great deal!). For each day of class you miss after three absences, you will lose two points. If you use less than five absences in the semester, you will receive two extra points toward your final grade up to a total of ten extra points. For example, if you miss five days of class, you neither gain nor lose points. If you miss six classes, you lose two points, seven classes, four points, etc. If you miss only four classes, you earn two points; three class, four points and perfect attendance earns you ten extra points. Not only is this a good way to encourage you to attend the greatest show on earth and earn points, but just being in class regularly will help you better master the material.
Misc. Grahdoo
All written work must be legible. If I cannot read an exam, you will have to read it to me in my office as part of an oral exam. This is not as easy as it may seem so please write legibly. Tardiness tends to be a distraction to the entire class and while an occasional tardiness cannot always be helped, excessive tardiness (more than a couple of times) will be duly noted. Finally, please turn off your electronic communication devices as they also pose a distraction to the class.
Final Words
The nature of this course demands from you a constant reappraisal of how the Supreme Court develops constitutional issues. As a dynamic process that reflects the transient values of society, constitutional law, to be fully appreciated, must be studied as a continuum. Each case is much like a frame in a movie. Each frame gives you a picture but the succession of frames gives you a complete story. Similarly, while a case may give you some insight into a constitutional principle, analyzing the compendia of cases on a specific legal issue will allow you to understand constitutional issues far beyond that which would be possible from studying a single case. Therefore, I expect from each of you, diligent preparations out of the classroom and intelligent, rigorous conduct in the classroom.
General Course ReadingsReadings and cases will be assigned each class. We shall present and analyze the cases the day(s) following their assignment. We shall select cases primarily from the following chapters listed below. Please note that I may place a few selected cases on reserve for our class to analyze in addition to those listed below. Also, I may ask you to retrieve a few cases to analyze that will not be placed on reserve.
Unit One: Concepts of Constitutional Interpretation
Part 1, An Introduction to the U.S. Constitution
pp. 3-11
Ch. 1, Understanding the U.S. Supreme Court
pp. 13-24
Part 2: Structuring the Federal System
pp. 55-58
Unit Two: The Judiciary
Chapter 2, The Judiciary
pp. 61-66
Marbury v. Madison (discussed in class)
pp. 74-78
pp. 91-119, Constraints on Judicial Power. Read the text portion, not the cases. Get a sense of the requirements and limitations on courts deciding cases.
Unit Three: The Legislature
Chapter 3, The Legislature
pp. 121-125,
pp. 125-147. Read the text portion, not the cases. Get a sense of the powers of the Legislature over internal affairs.
pp. 147-149, Sources and Scope of Legislative Powers
McCullough v. Maryland
McGrain v. Dougherty
Watkins v. United States
Barenblatt v. United States
United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp.
South Carolina v. Katzenbach
Unit Four: The Executive
Chapter 4, The Executive
pp. 185-194, pp. 199-248. Read the text portion, not the case. Get a sense of the constitutional powers and limitations of the Executive branch.
p. 248, The President and Foreign Policy
United States v. Curtiss Wright Export Corp.
Chapter 5, The Separation of Powers System in Action - Focus on Presidential War and Emergency Powers
pp. 252-256, Domestic Powers
pp. 271-272, President during war and emergencies
The Prize Cases
Ex Parte Milligan
Korematsu v. United States
Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company v. Sawyer
Dames and Moore v. Regan
The Midterm examination now beckens. That's life, eh?
Unit Five: The Commerce Power
Chapter 7, The Commerce Power
pp. 385-386
Gibbons v. Ogden
U.S. v. E.C. Knight Co.
Stafford v. Wallace
pp. 399-402
Schecter Poultry Corp. v. U.S.
Carter v. Carter Coal
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel
Wickard v. Filburn
U.S. v. Lopez
U.S. v. Morrison
Champion v. Ames
Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S.
Unit Six, Federalism (Concentrating on the development of National Ascendance over states rights)
Allocating Government Power
pp. 299-303, On allocating power between the nation and the states
Chapter 6, Federalism
pp. 305-307, Nation-State Relations, A cycle
McCullough v. Maryland
pp. 310-313, toward states' rights
Scott v. Sandford
p. 321, Dual Federalism and Laissez-Faire Economics
U.S. v. Darby Lumber
Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority
Alden v. Maine
South Dakota v. Dole
Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs (in 2000-2003 supplement)
Unit Seven, Time permitting, The Power to Tax and Spend (Emphasis on regulatory aspects)
pp. 462-474 (just the text, not the case)
pp. 481-482
McCray v. United States
Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co.
Steward Machine v. Davis
Unit Eight, Time permitting, Economic Substantive Due Process
pp. 554-557, The concept of economic substantive due process explained
The Slaughterhouse Cases
Munn v. Illinois
pp. 567-579. Just read the text portion and not Algeyer or Lochner
Muller v. Oregon
pp. 584-599. Just read the text portion to understand the rise and decline of economic substantive due process.
And just when you decide this is the coolest class in the history of the universe, it ends and the final examination brings you back down to earth. Bummer!