Posts for August 1, 2015

These are the posts that are accumulated in our newsletter which goes out every 4-6 days during the school year. The posts are organized by the major units in our Con Law (5^th ed.) student textbook.

I. Introduction to Law, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court [See TOPICS 1-10 in the 5^th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this unit:

Roberts at 10: Chief Justice Roberts and Big Business [Constitutional Accountability Center, 7/31/15]: Is this a pro-business Court?

http://theusconstitution.org/sites/default/files/briefs/Roberts-at-10-Business.pdf

II. Defining the Political System: Federalism and Checks and Balances [See TOPICS 11-15 in the 5^th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are recent articles that are relevant to this unit:

The Next Wave of Court Challenges to Obama's Legacy -- Part One: The Meaning of King v. Burwell [Balkinization blog, 7/31/15]:  …The celebration must be tempered.  This big win is not the President’s doing, nor that of the Executive Branch he controls.  Instead, it was due to two conservative justices, the Chief and Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose agendas, while generally divergent from his, meshed on this important occasion.  How often will these stars align again? 

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-next-wave-of-court-challenges-to.html

III. The Political System: Voting and Campaigns [See TOPICS 16-20 in the 5^th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this unit:

Political Climatology 2016: California Politics Podcast [KQED, 7/31/15]:  Bob Dylan may have famously once sang that “You don’t need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind blows,” but in politics you do need some data. And right now, it’s looking Democrats in California have the wind at their backs on some big environmental issues. 

http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/07/31/political-climatology-2016-california-politics-podcast/

IV. Criminal Law and Procedure (4^th, 5^th, 6^th, and 8^th amendments) [See TOPICS 21-28 in the 5^th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this unit

 

V. 1^st Amendment (Speech, Religion, Press and Assembly) [See TOPICS 29-33 in the 5^th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this unit:

VI. 14^th Amendment, Discrimination, Privacy, Working, Citizenship & Immigration [See TOPICS 34-41 in the 5^th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this unit: