Posts for August 15, 2017
These are the posts
that are accumulated in our weekly newsletter which goes out throughout the
school year. The posts are organized by the major units in our Constitutional Law (5th ed.) student textbook.
The first thing
teachers should do when school starts is talk about hatred in America. Here’s
help [Wash Post, 8/13/17]: #CharlottesvilleCurriculum:
That’s the new Twitter hashtag for educators, parents and anyone else looking
for resources to lead discussions with young people about the violence that
just erupted in Charlottesville, when white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux
Klan members marched and clashed with counterprotesters. One woman was killed
and 19 were injured when a car rammed into the counterprotesters, and two state
police officers assisting in the response died when their helicopter crashed on
the outskirts of town. Civics and history education have taken a back seat to
reading and math in recent years in “the era of accountability,” but it is past
time for them to take center stage again in America’s schools.
I. Introduction to Law, the
Constitution, and the Supreme Court [See TOPICS 1-10 in the 5th
edition of Constitutional Law]
Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this unit:
The BEST way to start off
your Civics or LRE class this year [CLEP/Rich Kitchens, 8/15/17: Have a class discussion about
the shipwreck cases, Regina v. Dudley and Stephens, and U.S.
v. Holmes.
The
fact situation in Holmes is discussed in our Con Law student text in TOPIC ONE.
It is a great way to get students involved in law-related education. The Dudley
and Stephens case is detailed in our Teacher’s Guide to Con Law.
II. Defining the Political
System: Federalism and Checks and Balances [See TOPICS 11-15
in the 5th edition of Constitutional
Law] Here are recent articles that are relevant to this unit:
The
American Presidency [TOPIC 15]
Trump Condemns KKK, White Supremacists
in Wake of Deadly Rally
[CNS, 8/14/17]: President Donald Trump bowed to tremendous pressure
Monday and condemned the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists as “criminals
and thugs” in the wake of a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Virginia over the
weekend.
Analysis: Trump’s slow walk to condemning white
supremacists [AP, 8/14/17]: It took President Donald Trump three days
to do what should have come fast and easy.
New on This Fall's Law School Syllabus: Trump [NY Times’ “Sidebar” blog, 8/14/17]: President Trump is
transforming the study of constitutional law. The nation’s law professors have
spent the summer revising their courses to take account of a president who
generates fresh constitutional questions by the tweet. When classes start in
the coming weeks, law students will be studying more than dusty doctrine. They
will also be considering an array of pressing questions.
Trump’s Business of Corruption [New Yorker, 8/14/17]: What secrets will
Mueller find when he investigates the President’s foreign deals?
Trump Says He May Pardon Joe Arpaio: ‘a
Great American Patriot’ [CNS, 8/15/17]: President Trump said he may
pardon former Sheriff Joe Arpaio for his criminal contempt of court conviction
for racially profiling Latinos in defiance of a federal judge’s order, because
Arpaio is “a great American patriot” who “has done a lot in the fight against
illegal immigration.”
Trump Asked to Fire White House
Staffers in Wake of Charlottesville [CNS, 8/15/17]: The leaders of
four minority House caucus groups have sent a letter to President Donald Trump,
calling for the removal of White House aides Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and
Sebastian Gorka.
III. The Political System: Voting and Campaigns
[See TOPICS 16-20 in the 5th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are
relevant to this unit:
California Tea Party: It’s Time for an Alternative to the
GOP [KQED, 8/14/17]: California Tea Partiers met in Fresno on Friday
and Saturday in hopes of activating their supporters on behalf of President
Trump’s agenda. “The Real Resistance Conference” brought together diehard
anti-establishment conservatives and disillusioned Republicans to talk
strategy.
IV. Criminal Law and Procedure (4th, 5th,
6th, and 8th amendments) [See TOPICS 21-28 in
the 5th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some
recent articles that are relevant to this unit
Sessions orders federal probe into Charlottesville
violence [Jurist, 8/14/17]: Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Saturday announced a
federal civil rights investigation into the violence in Charlottesville,
Virginia, over the weekend. A "Unite the Right" rally turned deadly
when counter-protesters clashed with members of white nationalist groups and
20-year old James Alex Fields drove a car into a crowd, killing 32-year old
Heather Heyer and injuring others.
A Top Lawyer Asks Supreme Court To Hear A Major
Death Penalty Case [BuzzFeed,
8/14/17]: In a new filing, Neal Katyal is asking the high court to consider
Arizona's death penalty law -- and whether the death penalty itself is
unconstitutional.
Crowdsourcing the
Charlottesville Investigation: The mixed
blessing of an internet posse [Marshall Project, 8/14/17]: Beyond the cost to misidentified suspects, the
crowdsourced identification of criminal suspects is both a benefit and burden
to investigators.
V. 1st Amendment
(Speech, Religion, Press and Assembly)
[See TOPICS 29-33 in the 5th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that
are relevant to this unit:
Confederate flags and Nazi swastikas together? That’s
new. Here’s what it means [Wash Post, 8/14/17]: At the white supremacist
rally in Charlottesville over the weekend, marchers carried Confederate and
Nazi flags side by side, protesting plans to remove Confederate statues from
the city’s Emancipation Park. That would have surprised Southerners not that
long ago.
Students Hold Their
Ground Amid A Sea Of White Supremacists On U.S. Campus [Huff Post,
8/13/17]: Torch-wielding alt-right
marchers chanted 'white lives matter' and 'Jews will not replace us'.
Californian Who Helped Lead Charlottesville Protests Used
Berkeley as a Test Run [KQED, 8/14/17]: Before white nationalists
protested in Charlottesville over the weekend, before a man allegedly plowed a
car into a group of people killing one and injuring at least 19, violent
clashes in Berkeley offered a window into the motives and tactics of Identity
Evropa, one of the white supremacist groups intimately involved in both
protests.
California White Supremacist Says Charlottesville May
Boost Recruitment [KQED, 8/14/17]: Nathan Damigo, leader of the
California-based white nationalist organization Identity Evropa, says that the
violent ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend
that left three dead might turn out to be an opportunity to connect with more
recruits for his organization. “I think there’s going to be a lot of people who
are going to, for the first time, realize that they’re not getting the full
story,” he told KQED in an interview on Monday.
“Freedom” Is
Best Response to White Supremacy Hatemongers [Newseum, 8/15/17]: Attempts to censor
neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups is a betrayal of our
nation’s core principles — not to mention ineffective and counterproductive.
VI. 14th
Amendment, Discrimination, Privacy, Working, Citizenship & Immigration [See TOPICS 34-41 in the 5th edition of Constitutional Law] Here are some recent articles that are relevant to
this unit:
Clashes over Title VII
protection of sexual orientation make way toward Supreme Court [Wash Times, 8/14/17]: Federal appeals judges are also at odds. A
Chicago-based court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does
cover sexual orientation, while an Atlanta-based court ruled that it was never
envisioned as a protected class under the law.
Why the Trump Administration
Will Lose its Case Against Gay Rights [Fortune / Library of Law & Liberty,
7/29/17]: The Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC), in a rare split within government over such
issues, has filed its own brief
with the court on the side of gay rights in the workplace. This case is Zaarda v. Altitude Express, Inc. and is
in the 2nd Circuit right now.
The spurned couple, the baker and the long wait for the
Supreme Court [Wash Post, 8/14/17]: The
incident took only moments. The journey through the Colorado legal process
lasted years. And then the Supreme Court took its own sweet time. Almost a year
passed from the date the court was first asked to review a dispute between a
gay couple and a baker who refused to make them a wedding cake and the
justices’ announcement that they would do just that. When the Supreme Court
hears the case this fall, it has the potential to be a major decision worth the
wait.
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