Constitutional Law Course Research Articles

The Role of Constitutional Law in Improving Student's Critical Thinking Ability Through Online Learning

Lecturers are required to be effective and up to date in maximizing the use of existing learning technology to respond to the demands of very rapid technological developments and the demands of competition in the era of globalization. The application of self-directed and distance learning should be introduced and implemented in universities. Involvement in the application of online learning systems must be able to encourage students to always think critically. In the present context, critical thinking is a must for students. This paper discusses the role of constitutional law courses in increasing the critical power of students in online learning. This research uses a field study and literature study approach, which combines data obtained from various literature in the form of books, journal articles, and facts in the field. In short, this study found that online learning can be a good support for students to improve their critical thinking skills. However, there are several problems in its implementation which include socio-cultural problems, previous offline learning habits, and the habit of using the latest technology in learning. Well-designed online discussions, critical thinking learning content, and instructions that are formulated and given appropriately are some of the factors needed and become recommendations for lecturers in carrying out online learning to improve students’ critical thinking skills.
 Keywords: Students’ Critical Thinking, Constitutional Law, Online Learning

A Systemic Perspective

A Systemic Perspective

Introduction

Introduction Melvin I. Urofsky We note with great sorrow the passing of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. During her tenure on the Court, she was a friend of the Society, Journal, and also of its editor. Few members of the high court have been the focus of such great personal renown in the outer world; in fact, the only other justice I can think of who had a movie made about them would be Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. As is our custom, we mark the passing of a justice with two brief articles, one by a colleague on the bench and the other by a clerk. Justice Clarence Thomas, who served with Justice Ginsberg throughout her tenure, writes about the esteem, respect, and affection she enjoyed while on the bench. Ms. Ruthanne Deutsch clerked for the justice in the 2007 Term. One recalls the picture of the justice’s coffin being carried up the steps of the Supreme Court, with her former clerks lined up as an honor guard on either side. Ms. Deutsch is currently an attorney in private practice in D.C. We also note that the longtime executive director of the Society, David Pride, has retired after four decades of service to the Society. When I became editor, David was not only a mentor but became a friend. His wisdom in guiding the Society, and facilitating the move into its current quarter, will be long remembered. We wish him and his wife many years of a happy and healthy retirement. Our regular selection of articles once again displays how broad the subject of Supreme Court history has become; it also displays the wealth of talent that is tied to the Court and to the Journal. The first article, about the color of the justices’ robes, is by Matthew Hofstedt, who is the Associate Curator of the Supreme Court. We often take for granted that the justices’ robes are black, and in recent years when Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist added some stripes, and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ginsburg added lace collars, the basic robe remained black. Was it always that way? Mr. Hofstedt gives us an answer. A number of years ago when I was researching a book, I asked Justice Ginsburg a question involving judicial ethics, i.e., what could they do extrajudicially? She sent me to the office that answers these questions for the Court, and I was told that this question—and its answers—have changed over time. Our managing editor, Clare Cushman, who is also the Society’s Director of Publications and Resident Historian, wrote in the last issue about how William R. Day hired his sons to [End Page 5] serve as his law clerks, then called “secretaries.” It turns out that Justice Day’s sons also practiced before the Supreme Court, with their father recusing most, but not all, of the time. While this would cause great alarm today, it apparently did not upset bench, bar, or the public in those days. Tom C. Clark is an often underrated member of the Supreme Court, remembered primarily for the fact that he resigned in order to make it possible for President Lyndon B. Johnson to appoint Clark’s son Ramsey as Attorney General. What is not as well known is what happened a few years later, when Johnson wanted to get rid of Ramsey. Craig Alan Smith, professor of history and political science at California University of Pennsylvania, tells us that story. Professor Smith is currently at work on a much-needed biography of Clark. We have two student essays in this issue. The first is by Rachael E. Jones, a law student at the University of Virginia who wrote this article under the mentorship of Professor Micah Schwartzman. The Rosenberger case is one that is taught in nearly every constitutional law course, because it marks, although not always clearly, a shift in the Court’s Establishment Clause jurisdiction. Ms. Jones agrees that the case is an inflection point, but she also points out that there is a great deal more involved in the case, much of it unrelated to jurisprudence. It is a case in which we really do...

Vaccines and the Armed Forces: There “AIN’T” NO “Anti-vaxxers” in the Military

Abstract As many of you may remember from your first-year Tort and Constitutional Law courses, courts recognize the right of competent adults to refuse medical treatment, even if necessary to save their lives; this generally includes the right to refuse immunizations from diseases, particularly if the vaccine has not yet been approved by the Food & Drug Administration. As you also undoubtedly know, servicemembers are different. To maintain the strength and readiness of the armed forces, military personnel must undergo necessary medical treatment. Otherwise, if they become casualties to disease or other treatable disabilities, servicemembers become burdens on their units, and their jobs must be assumed by others—often leaving their units short-handed. Their illnesses or disabilities thus affect the ability of their units to accomplish their missions and may jeopardize the safety and lives of their fellow servicemembers. Indeed, until World War II, the majority of combat deaths in military units engaged in combat were due to infectious diseases rather than direct combat injuries.

State Constitutional Law Teaching Materials for 1L Constitutional Law Classes (Supplement)

This set of materials, intended for use in a 1L Constitutional Law course, offers a concise introduction to state constitutions and state constitutional principles. The materials are intended to be teachable in a single class session, and offer students an introduction to the other constitutions that offer a basis for constitutional claims and arguments, i.e., state constitutions.

Socio-Economic Provisions of the Constitution: New Regulation and Study in the Constitutional Law Course

The article is devoted to the regulation and study of the socio-economic provisions of the Constitution of Russia. The author points to the absence of a chapter on the fundamentals of the social structure. Replacing such a chapter with a more general chapter on the fundamentals of the entire constitutional system has its advantages and disadvantages, gives rise to different methodological approaches to the study of the constitutional foundations of the social structure, and in particular its socio-economic principles. The combination of such principles, basic socio-economic provisions, constitutional institutions governing the main socio-economic relations, creates a specific socio-economic paradigm (model) for an individual constitution or a group of similar constitutions. The article proposes a scheme for the study of such principles and provisions, and names some socio-economic principles that are not fixed but necessary for a modern constitution. The article analyzes the approaches to the legal definition of the concept of the constitution. The author points to a new vector of constitutional development. On this basis, the structure of constitutional law may be somewhat changed. Having analyzed the experience of the constitutional development of some foreign countries, the existing constitutions, conclusions and proposals of constitutional scholars, the author determines that the paradigm of the modern constitution includes five components.

Formative Assessments: A Law School Case Study

Several empirical studies have shown that formative assessment improves student learning. We build on those studies by reporting the results of a natural experiment at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Students in one of three first-year sections had the opportunity to complete a formative assessment in their spring-semester Constitutional Law course. The assessment consisted of an essay question that the professor had used on a prior exam. Students who submitted an essay answer received prompt, extensive written feedback; they also had the chance to discuss their answer with the professor. Over the course of three years, about half of the students enrolled in the section took advantage of the formative assessment. Those students achieved significantly higher grades on the final exam even though the assessment score did not factor into their course grade. Notably, students receiving this formative feedback also secured a significantly higher GPA in their other spring-semester classes. Both of these effects persisted after controlling for LSAT score, UGPA, gender, race, and fall-semester grades. These controls helped reduce any effect of selection bias on our findings. In addition to exploring these relationships between formative assessment and academic achievement, we discuss several race and gender effects that emerged in our analyses. Women, for example, were significantly more likely than men to complete the formative assessment. Women also received significantly higher grades than men in a spring-semester course on Legal Analysis and Writing; men, conversely, received significantly higher grades than women in a Legislation course. A race effect, meanwhile, emerged for students with LSAT scores at or above the school median: Among those students, nonwhite students who completed the formative assessment achieved significantly higher grades in Constitutional Law than white students who submitted the same exercise. All of these relationships deserve further empirical study. In particular, our results suggest the importance of examining the transfer effects of formative feedback, gender differences in law school learning, and paths for improving the academic experience of minority students.

Procedural Due Process: The Missing Casebook Chapter

This is a selection of lightly edited cases and brief notes intended to serve as the equivalent of a casebook chapter on procedural due process in a constitutional law or related course. Most of the best constitutional law casebooks pay very little attention to procedural due process. Ordinarily, the topic is consigned to a very short section tacked onto the end of a much more substantial discussion of substantive due process, Lochner, etc. This neglect misses the practical, theoretical, doctrinal, and pedagogical importance of procedural due process. In an attempt to remedy this situation, I am making this supplementary material free of charge to all comers, not only for my own students, but for other faculty as well. For the latter, I encourage you to make use of it in your own courses, or even modify or distribute it, if you would like, in other materials. I only ask that you provide appropriate attribution and drop me an e-mail to let me know how it’s been useful to you. I would also greatly appreciate any feedback. This is an experimental document. It is meant to be suitable for use in any course covering procedural due process, regardless of the casebook or official title of the course (e.g., constitutional law, public benefits law, constitutional criminal procedure, civil procedure). Because I intend the supplement to be useful in a wide variety of courses and with numerous casebooks, I have erred on the side of length; this supplement is not intended to be assigned in its entirety. Current version: 1.1, updated December 1, 2013, with addition of Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co.

A Casebook for the Dean’s Reading List: Holland, McAllister, Shaman & Sutton, State Constitutional Law: The Modern Experience

Perhaps this Article will prompt you to obtain a professor’s review copy of its subject—the new casebook, State Constitutional Law: The Modern Experience—and present it to the dean or academic dean of your law college. If you share my distress about the comparative silence of law schools and bar examiners in response to the contemporary callings to teach and test state constitutional law, consider also attaching a copy of co-author and Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton’s article, Why Teach—and Why Study—State Constitutional Law, or flagging retired Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice E. Norman Veasey’s Foreword to The Modern Experience, which culminates in a reprint of the July 2010 Conference of Chief Justices Resolution regarding State Constitutional Law Courses. For too long, the American legal educational system has ignored the importance of state constitutions to our legal and political systems. Scholarly commentary from United States Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. and Oregon Supreme Court Justice Hans A. Linde in the late 1970s and early 1980s raised attention to the dormancy of state constitutional law and seemingly led to the development of the first and, until now, only employed casebook on the subject. Although that

Incorporating a Sophisticated Supreme Court Simulation into an Undergraduate Constitutional Law Class

Role-playing activities and simulations have been popular teaching tools in political science courses for many years. One area where simulations and role-playing activities have been used extensively is constitutional law. These projects can range from a short judicial decision-making scenario to a full-semester Supreme Court simulation involving lawyers, interest groups, and justices. This paper explains how to incorporate a sophisticated Supreme Court simulation into an undergraduate constitutional law course. Instead of having students play the role of a generic justice who must decide a case, the simulation requires students to assume the roles of current Supreme Court justices and they must decide cases and write an opinion from the perspective of the justice they are playing. This type of role-playing assignment requires higher order thinking because students must apply their substantive knowledge of constitutional law and the jurisprudence of their justice in deciding important constitutional issues. Although the simulation places extra demands on the instructor and students, the effort is worthwhile because this kind of class project creates a learning environment that is challenging, interactive, and fun.

Constitutional law stories

This publication provides a student with an understanding of 15 leading U.S. constitutional law cases, focusing on how the litigation was shaped by lawyers, judges and socioeconomic factors, and why the cases have attained landmark status. It is suitable for adoption as a supplement in an introductory constitutional law course, or as a text for an advanced seminar.

Integrating International Human Rights and Comparative Constitutional Law Into the U.S. Constitutional Law Course

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Reordering American Constitutional Law Teaching

Invariably, constitutional law courses begin with constitutional powers issues: the origins and scope of judicial review, Congress and the development of national power, the powers of the presidency, the modern administrative state, the states and American federalism, and representation, voting, and electoral politics. In two-semester courses, these issues are addressed in the fall. In one-semes-

Come to the Edge: Role Playing Activities in a Constitutional Law Class

How can I get my students to read their assignments carefully? How can I develop the writing abilities of my students? How can I get students interested in the course and excited about learning? Answers to these questions are obviously not easy, but in the teaching of a constitutional law course focusing upon civil liberties I have found that structuring the course around role playing activities seems to create a learning environment in which all of these concerns

Simulating Supreme Court Decision Making

Students of the judiciary have long been concerned with the factors that contribute to decision-making at the individual and institutional levels. In particular, analysts have focused a great deal of attention on the Supreme Court and the behavior of its members. Despite this attention, analysts have differed as to the relative influence of the factors justices rely upon when making their decisions. Even the courses taught in a standard political science undergraduate curriculum send mixed signals about these factors to students. Basic constitutional law courses tend to overestimate the role of doctrinal interpretation and precedent and underestimate the impact of the values and attitudes of the Court's members. Courses on the judicial process and politics err in the opposite direction.When the decision-making literature is viewed as a whole, five basic determinants of judicial decisions emerge: the background of the justice (Tate 1981), the justice's attitudes and values (Rohde and Spaeth 1976), the dynamics inherent in small-groups (Murphy 1964; Woodward and Armstrong 1979), the member's conception of the role of the Court (Howard 1977), and the impact of external stimuli (Casper and Posner 1974). Some of these variables can be measured, but some are very difficult to gauge. As a consequence, analysts cannot accurately assess the relative impact of these five factors upon the individual's decision.

Linkages Between International Human Rights and U.S. Constitutional Law

While many law schools now offer separate courses or seminars on international human rights law, the number of students exposed to such specialized study remains relatively small. Human rights law is relevant to many other segments of the law school curriculum—in particular, to courses on constitutional law and individual rights—although little scholarly attention has been devoted to date to integrating appropriate human rights issues into the “bread and butter” courses that all law students take. To begin to address this lacuna, the Procedural Aspects of International Law (PAIL) Institute has undertaken to develop a human rights component or module designed to supplement leading constitutional law course books and present methods of teaching constitutional law.

Teaching Legal Research Methods

The political science undergraduate curriculum has long included courses dealing with substantive aspects of the law. At one time the traditional constitutional law course served as an introduction to the relationship of law and politics. More recently courses such as civil liberties, criminal justice, judicial process, and law and society have become frequent political science offerings. While these and other courses teach students procedural and substantive aspects of the law, many such courses contain student research components as a learning device.Too often, however, political science/ public law training has ignored teaching about the uses of resources for legal research. Students are often directed to the law section of the library to face a batch of new and bewildering resource materials. As a result, Unfamiliar or seemingly intimidating materials such as Shephard's or law digests were often ignored or improperly used by students.

What's Wrong With Teaching Facts To Constitutional Law Students—: Rebuttal To a Colleague

This brief article is in response to Professor Langran's article in Teaching Political Science, April 1978 issue entitled “What's Wrong with Facts?” The thrust of this rebuttal is that my colleague is wrong on two counts: (1) he places too much emphasis on facts as learning ends in themselves and consequently, he treats all judicial decisions as equally important; and (2) he reinforces role learning and rewards memorization in his evaluation instruments. Although students should provide supporting evidence on examinations, Professor Langran's emphasis on case-decision identification is misplaced, especially in a liberal arts curriculum. He readily admits that his pedagogical style is tailored to meet the needs of his pre-law students. By considering his constitutional law courses as preparation for law school, he neglects the development of skills and values traditionally associated with liberal education. This article provides a different perspective to the teaching of law-related courses in a liberal arts context.

The Impact of Self-Grading on Performance and Evaluation in a Constitutional Law Course

The Impact of Self-Grading on Performance and Evaluation in a Constitutional Law Course