This course focuses on landmark civil rights decisions of the Supreme Court, which elaborate the constitutional doctrine of “equal protection” and are a lens through which we can view America’s unfolding struggle over race. Situated at the nexus of law, politics, and history, the course explores the links between civil rights decisions and wider social, political, and economic contexts. Organized roughly chronologically, the course covers the following major topics: the political crisis over slavery; the law and politics of Reconstruction; the Jim Crow era; the legal construction of “whiteness” in the law of naturalized citizenship; the Japanese-American internment during World War II; “war on terror” cases involving the Guantanamo Bay detainees; and the Trump Administration’s Travel Ban. The course also includes a unit on the law and politics of the Civil Rights Era, which covers the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. The overall goal of the course is to explore the nature of Supreme Court decision-making, the relationship of the Court to the other branches of government and, generally, the role of the Supreme Court in American politics. Themes running throughout the course include “equality” as a contested concept, race and ethnic politics, and constructions of American identity.

This course is in the American Politics subfield.

Intended Audience:

Sophomores, juniors, and seniors.