The Teachings of Professor Sandalow

Abstract

Some courses you took at Michigan Law School because they were required. Some you took just because they sounded interesting. Some you thought were somehow related to what you expected to be doing after graduation. And then there was Federal Courts and the Federal System, taught by Professor Terry Sandalow. That course you took as a challenge - because it was there, and you knew that if you did not take it, you would always wonder how you would have done. I took the challenge in the Fall of 1977. I worked hard and thrived on the experience. For my efforts, I got the lowest grade I received in any course in Law School. From the first moment of class, we knew we were in for an intellectual ride the likes of which we had not seen. Looking back now, I can see that Professor Sandalow found in the Federal Courts class the perfect means for exploring the peculiar genius of the entire United States system of government. Through the cases and doctrines that had come to define the role of the federal courts in our society, he was free to explore the subtle interplay among the different centers of political and legal power: the states and the federal government; the courts and the Congress; the executive branch and all of the above. This was law as political philosophy. Ultimately no less than the health of the Republic itself was the issue. But I confess now that I did not grasp then the scope of what Professor Sandalow was setting before us. Instead, with his help we saw a complex intellectual ecosystem all its own, full of puzzles and rules expressed largely in the carefully drafted language of the Supreme Court. It was in maneuvering through this system that Terry Sandalow demonstrated his extraordinary intellectual capacity in class after class. He thought with a level of rigor that was all his own, although he invariably tried to lead us toward his level. Each complicated subject was a new gift to be unwrapped, examined from every angle, taken apart, and put back together again - all for the sheer joy of the experience. Professor Sandalow showed much more than intellectual capacity as he led us in Federal Courts. He showed us what it meant to be a great teacher. At the time, it seemed almost incongruous. This man, who consistently exhibited such high standards in thinking and ana