LAW-2423 Advanced Topics in Constitutional Law: Equal Protection and Due Process
This course offers an in-depth examination of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses. The primary focus will be on issues of discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, gender, and sexual orientation in a wide range of contexts. Some attention will also be given to Constitutional protections of fundamental rights relating to privacy, sexuality, and familial and reproductive autonomy. Specific topics to be considered will include residential and educational segregation; affirmative action; voting rights; marriage equality; and the history, purpose, and jurisprudential development of the Fourteenth Amendment. Throughout the course, students will be invited to reflect upon the role of lawyers and courts in promoting equality, and on the ways in which American legal and societal structures may enable or constrain those efforts.