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This class will be a hybrid between a group seminar and independent research projects. The seminar will meet over Zoom every other week to cover basic topics in constitutional law, potentially including interpretive methods, federalism and the separation of powers, emergency constitutionalism, and comparative constitutional law. During the alternating weeks, students will meet individually with the instructor over Zoom to discuss readings they are doing independently, either with the aim of working toward a research project or with the goal of exploring different areas of Constitutional Law. Students may opt either to write five shorter responses papers on readings they complete during the quarter or a final research paper (which will count for R credit). After the term begins, students accepted into the course can transfer from section (01) into section (02), which meets the R requirement, with consent of the instructor. No automatic grading penalty for late papers. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper. CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete and submit a Consent Application Form available on the SLS website (Click Courses at the bottom of the homepage and then click Consent of Instructor Forms). See Consent Application Form for instructions and submission deadline.

While some political debates are simply efforts to craft a message that will enable the proponent to seize or maintain political power, others are rooted in different conceptions of what government can and should be doing. Opinions about issues ranging from antidiscrimination law, criminal justice, education, poverty, and inequality to gun policy, environmental law, the challenge of climate change, the provision of medical care, national defense, and the need to thwart or respond to pandemics, asteroids, or other rare but potentially catastrophic events are rooted in conceptions of the proper role of government and empirical assessments about its capacities and the benefits and costs from government action or inaction. Based on the course readings and our discussions, those supporting a more limited role of government will be pushed to defend this position and articulate its possible risks and benefits. Those supporting a more activist approach will be pushed to prioritize their programmatic preferences in light of our inherently limited capacity to advance every objective and address every possible problem or threat. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper.

This course will explore the changes to the Constitution made after the Civil War and their enforcement statutes. Materials will primarily be original source texts, supplemented by selected secondary literature. The majority of class time will be devoted to discussion, based on close reading of the materials. Students will be assigned to take the lead on class discussion on particular topics. Topics will include: (1) the constitutional status of slavery prior to the Civil War; (2) the Emancipation Proclamation; (3) the Thirteenth Amendment; (4) the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and President Johnson's constitutional veto; (4) drafting and ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, with special emphasis on the citizenship clause, due process, equal protection, privileges and immunities, and congressional enforcement; (5) the Freedman's Bureau Act, Ku Klux Klan Act, Enforcement Acts, and Civil Rights Act of 1871; (6) the Fifteenth Amendment; (7) the Civil Rights Act of 1875; (8) early Supreme Court interpretations, and (9) the collapse of Reconstruction and rise of Jim Crow. Within these topics, we will discuss segregation, affirmative action, the state action doctrine, equality with respect to non-racial characteristics, ratification rules, state sovereign immunity, and the role of electoral politics in constitutional interpretation and enforcement. Note: This is NOT a course on current interpretations of the Reconstruction Amendments, but on their historical background. There are no prerequisites. First year law students and non-law students are welcome. Constitutional Law would be helpful but is not required. Grading. Grades will be based partly (20%) on class participation, and partly on either an in-class exam or a research paper on a topic approved in advance by the instructor. Students will choose between the exam and the paper. Grades for students will be on the Honors/Pass/Restrd Cr/Fail system. After the term begins, students accepted into the course can transfer, with consent of the instructor, from section (01) into section (02), which meets the R requirement. Cross-listed with History 153C ( HISTORY 153C).

We are living in extraordinary times. The historic convergence of social, economic, and public health challenges has profoundly impacted the lives of millions of Americans. In the midst of great uncertainty, the 2020 U.S. presidential election will be perhaps the most important in our lifetimes. Will Donald J. Trump win re-election amidst high unemployment, deep political polarization, and the COVID-19 pandemic that has upended life as we know it? Or will Joe Biden and a team of Democrats prevail? We will assemble a wide range of expert speakers--including preeminent political, business, foreign policy, and academic leaders--to explore these questions, and more, as we seek to cultivate a broad and informed view of this pivotal election. Each week, the course will examine major topics at stake for the country. Anticipated topics include: the nation's coronavirus response; widening inequality across America; racial violence and nationwide protests; the role of technology and media in the election; the state of our economy; the Supreme Court and the rule of law; education policy; climate change; foreign policy; and voting rights. Elements used in grading: Attendance. Cross-listed with the School of Education ( EDUC 157).

The Regulation, Evaluation, and Governance Lab (RegLab) partners with government agencies to envision how data science can improve administrative governance. Students enrolled in this practicum will be working on projects related to the core mission of the RegLab, using the tools of data science to improve law and governance. The course is open to law and non-law students, with consent of the instructor. Law students may take the course for 1 to 4 units and non-law students may take the course for 1 to 5 units. Students may elect the Honors/Pass/R/F or Mandatory Pass/R/F grading basis. Course units and grade basis must be approved by the instructor and selected when students enroll in the course in Axess. Students have the option to enroll for EL credit and PW credit (Section 01) or no EL credit (Section 02) with instructor permission. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Performance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper. Consent Application: Interested students may apply to enroll in the course by sending a statement of interest to Daniel Ho at dho@ law.stanford.edu. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.

This seminar will investigate ways in which policing has served as an instrument of racial subordination and violence in the United States. It will also explore how the primary remedial tool for addressing excesses in policing--42 U.S.C. § 1983, enacted in the Klu Klux Klan Act of 1871 and the third Enforcement statute passed after the Civil War--has functioned. Attention will be given to the criminalization of blackness (and other non-white groups), the pathologies of force, and the development of legal rules (e.g., immunity doctrines and standards concerning municipal liability) in Section 1983 litigation. Casework and litigation strategies will be set alongside readings, both theoretical and pragmatic, drawing from the fields of remedies; political philosophy; legal realism and critical race theory; and traditional doctrine. Students will write several brief reflection papers (roughly two pages) exploring how the assigned readings bear on the general themes of the course, and broader reactions to the readings. A longer paper (roughly 7-8 pages) about any topic related to race and policing is also required. Elements used in grading: Grading will be based on the papers and class participation.

This course will take an interdisciplinary approach to these issues by enrolling students from the Law School and the Graduate School of Education. Specifically, partnering with Public Counsel and IntegrateNYC, Youth Justice Lab students will gather and analyze the relevant historical and empirical research, interview and consult with experts in the field, and draft a series of research and policy memos that summarize our research and provide recommendations.

America's social safety net--from health insurance to food support to housing assistance to unemployment insurance--was built over many years and embedded into America's system of federalism, a partnership between the federal and state governments, and America's deep-rooted commitment to a public-private model of shared risk and shared responsibility between the government and private employers. Our safety net is intended to provide a floor to prevent poverty and destitution, to support workers and their families when work is not available either due to the economy or to personal circumstances, and it is intended to also provide for basic human needs such as food, medicine and shelter. The COVID-19 induced recession with millions of lost jobs, lost wages and severe global economic disruption provided the greatest stress test to our modern safety net. This seminar will examine the structure, law and policies of America's social insurance system and safety net. We will examine these social programs through a combination of theoretical readings, court cases, practical policy proposals, and lessons learned from how the system worked or failed during the great stress test provided by COVID-19 and the ensuing recession. The course aims to spur critical thinking about the proper role of government in protecting against certain risks, as well as the appropriate target of the government's interventions. The course will also consider how the changing nature of work, family, technology and the private sector has played in disrupting the existing social safety net and what considerations should be taken into account to strengthen and build the next generation social safety net in America. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper.

Since your first week of law school, you have been reading legal opinions written by judges. Who were those judges and did their identities affect their views? From a judge's perspective, what makes a case hard or easy? Did the process by which the judge was selected--or could be removed from office--influence her or his decision? How do judges make choices about the larger legal ecosystem in which you will practice law? After all, judges determine many aspects of the legal environment in which lawyers operate, from whether you can livestream a court hearing from your phone to whether you will take the bar exam in person or online. Taught by a Justice on a California Court of Appeal, this seminar explores judicial decision making about cases and the court system from a variety of perspectives. It draws from accounts by social scientists, lawyers, and judges themselves, analyzing what judges do and critiquing how they do it. The seminar examines systems of judicial selection, evaluation, and removal in both the federal and state court systems and their potential effects on judicial decision making. We will take up questions such as whether the identity of judges matters to their decisions, how heuristics or implicit biases might influence outcomes, how communities try to choose "good" judges and what they do when those choices go wrong, evaluate efforts to diversify the bench, and consider what lessons might be learned from the experiences of various states in evaluating and electing judges. One theme of the seminar involves the interaction of judges with litigants, the public, and other government actors--on twenty-first-century terms. We will ask how courts should manage questions related to transparency, privacy, access to justice, and technology. We will think about how judges might choose or be compelled to rely on emerging automation technologies, whether simple algorithms or advanced machine learning. We also will consider the extent to which judges do and should take into account the views of executive officials, legislators, nongovernmental organizations, and members of the general public when deciding cases and structuring the legal system. In addition, we will look at ethics rules governing what judges can learn and what they can say. For example, can or should a judge run an experiment that tests a litigant's factual assertion, or, in her free time, write an online product review, lead a religious group, or participate in a commission to improve state government? The seminar will pursue these questions from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Sitting judges from a variety of courts will share their insights with seminar participants. Students will write a research paper on a relevant topic of their choice, and will be encouraged to think critically about how judges make decisions and how courts can be improved in realistic ways. We will think together about how judges and courts can best deliver justice in a changing, contested, unequal, and increasingly complex world. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Research Paper.