Source: https://pages.wustl.edu/calvert/ps-4532-seminar-constitutional-politics
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 04:57:27+00:00

Document:
American voters overturned the anticipations of most political observers when they selected Donald J. Trump as president in the 2016 election. Their intentions, and of course the statements and actions of Trump and his administration during its early months, raise fundamental questions about the nature, practice, and prospects of American constitutional government.
For students who have already done upper-division course work in American or comparative political institutions, this course offers an opportunity to combine what they have learned with pertinent advanced material on the nature of constitutionalism and on current challenges to American constitutionalism, and to pursue and share with one another their original individual research on topics of their own choosing touching on those areas. Material to be covered prior to the research projects includes the development of modern American constitutional ideologies; American constitutional crises; constitutional failures in other democratic countries; and present critical constitutional issues in the U.S.
Prerequisite: A previous course at the 300-level or above in constitutional politics, constitutional law, or law and society; or, with instructor's permission, other relevant advanced coursework.
Week 2 will begin with discussion of paper topics you might be interested in. Come to class with a couple of ideas in mind on which you have done a small amount of preliminary research.
David Frum, "How to Build an Autocracy." The Atlantic (March 2017). Click here to obtain online.
Miklos Bankuti, Gabor Halmai, and Kim Lane Scheppele, "Disabling the Constitution." Journal of Democracy Vol. 23, No. 3 (July 2012), pp. 138-146. Click here to obtain online.
Bartosz T. Wielinski, "Op ed: The Troubled Poland Trump Will Visit." New York Times (July 2, 2017). Click here to obtain online.
Ariel Malka and Yphtach Lelkes, "In a new poll, half of Republicans say they would support postponing the 2020 election if Trump proposed it." The Monkey Cage, Washington Post (Aug 10 2017). Click here to obtain online.
For week 3 (Sep. 14) read the items under "Parties, ideologies, coalitions" and "20th -- and 21st? -- century liberalism"
Gary Miller and Norman Schofield, "The Transformation of the Republican and Democratic Party Coalitions in the U.S." Perspectives on Politics Vol. 6, No. 3 (Sep. 2008), pp. 433-450. Click here to obtain online.
Byron Dexter, "Herbert Croly and the Promise of American Life." Political Science Quarterly Vol. 70, No. 2 (Jun., 1955), pp. 197-218. Click here to obtain online.
Recommended only: Gary Gerstle, "The Protean Character of American Liberalism." American Historical Review, Vol. 99, No. 4 (Oct., 1994), pp. 1043-1073. Click here to obtain the full article online.
Brief excerpts distributed via email.
Recall, skim, and read up on the Supreme Court's unanimously supported opinion striking down the National Recovery Act: Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States (1935).
The issues in this and several related cases are briefly and usefully summarized in a pamphlet of an organization opposing the New Deal. See American Liberty League, The Supreme Court and the New Deal (1935).
Read carefully the famous footnote 4 of the majority opinion.
Somewhat rough transcript of Alexander P. Lamis's 1981 interview with Republican campaign stragegist Lee Atwater on the Republicans' "southern strategy." Alternatively, you can listen to the 42-minute audio published by The Nation in 2012.
Mark Lilla, "The End of Identity Liberalism." New York Times (Nov. 18, 2016). Click here to obtain online.
Jacob T. Levy, "The Defense of Liberty Can’t Do without Identity Politics." Defending the Open Society, Niskanen Center (Dec. 13, 2016). Click here to obtain online.
Beverly Gage, "More 'Progressive' Than Thou." New York Times Magazine (Jan. 12, 2016). Click here to obtain online.
Wikipedia article on "interest group liberalism."
56-58 subsection, "Dozens of organizations... sprang into existence" and full paragraph on 60, "…nightmarish fears inspired by anticommunism"
In the Epilogue, the first section (on 263-265) and the final paragraph (269).
Skim Introduction and Chapters 1 and 3 (58 pages).
Excerpts (118 pages, plus some skimming) from Theda Skocpol & Vanessa Williamson, The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism (Updated ed., 2016).
Skim the Introduction -- get an idea of the time line & of the authors' overall argument and methods.
Skim Chapter 1 for a general picture of the demographics, opinions, and prior politics of Tea Party members.
Read chapters 2-4 (106 pages).
Skim introductory sections of chatper 5 and 6.
In chapter 6, read the section "The Paradoxes of Tea Party Citizenship," pages 197-201.
Read the Epilogue (8 pages).
Arlie Russell Hochschild, "Trump's Biggest Fans." Mother Jones (Aug. 28, 2016). Click here to obtain online.
Graph of U.S. homicide rate, 1900-2006 from a talk by Randolph Roth, author of American Homicide (Belknap Press, 2009).
More graphs (beginning on p. 36; scroll down) on U.S. larceny (1933-1998) and homicide (1900-1998) rates, from the Justice Research and Statistics Organization (about).
Keeping in mind that you'll be writing further about a specific Trump-era constitutional issue, choose one such issue or group of issues and explore the positions taken on that issue by various ideological and party groups. You should make reference to a variety of position statements, being careful to identify accurately the political identities of their authors.
Julia R. Azari and Jennifer K. Smith, "Unwritten Rules: Informal Institutions in Established Democracies." Perspectives on Politics Vol. 10, No. 1 (March 2012), pp. 37-55. Click here to obtain online.
Skim: E.J. Dionne, Jr., Norm Ornstein, and Thomas E. Mann, "How the GOP Prompted the Decay of Political Norms." The Atlantic (Sept. 19, 2017). About 10 pages of large print, including displays. Click here to obtain online. Except for updating with the Garland nomination, this article largely reflects themes in Mann-Ornstein book, but puts the discussion in terms of norm-breaking.
Jack Balkin, "Constitutional Rot and Constitutional Crisis," in Balkinization blog (May 15, 2017). About 4 pages of small print. Click here to obtain online.
Jack Balkin, "Trumping the Constitution," in Balkinization blog (June 14, 2017). 5 1/2 pages of small print. Click here to obtain online.
Emily Bazelon, "How Do We Contend With Trump's Defiance of Norms?" New York Times Magazine (July 11, 2017). 4 1/2 pages, printed out. Click here to obtain online.
first & last section: Michael C. Dorf, "Would a Trump Self-Pardon Precipitate a Constitutional Crisis?" Verdict: Legal Analysis and Commentary from Justia (26 July 2017). 8 1/2 pages large print. Click here to obtain online. Essay begins with discussion of self-pardon, ends with a couple of other well-stated examples.
Brendan Nyhan, "Norms Matter." Politico Magazine (Sep./Oct. 2017). About 3 pages. Click here to obtain online. Several briefly described examples.
Explore a bit: "Norms Watch" column in the blog Just Security, appearing weekly (on Fridays) and compiled here.
(3) Reaction to Trump's remarks on the Charlottesville protests, blaming "many sides" for violence and noting that there are "many fine people" among protesting white supremacists. Is a widely-held norm being violated, or is this just another partisan issue?
Michael M. Grynbaum, " 'Wow': Stunned TV Hosts Reacted in Real Time to Trump." NY Times (Aug. 15, 2017). Click here to obtain online. The video compilation at the top of the article is an impressive summary.
David Gelles et al., "Trump Ends C.E.O. Advisory Councils as Main Group Acts to Disband." NY Times (Aug. 15, 2017). Click here to obtain online.
Damian Paletta and Jena McGregor, "Trump's business advisory councils disband as CEOs abandon president over Charlottesville views." Washington Post (Aug, 16, 2017). Click here to obtain online.
Greg Sargent, "Everyone working for Trump knows his Charlottesville response is an abomination." Opinion: The Plum Line, Washington Post (Aug. 16, 2017). Click here to obtain online.
(4) Could norm-breaking damage civilian control of the military?
Matthew Fay, "Persistently Politicizing the Military." Niskanen Center blog (July 28, 2017). Click here to obtain online.
Daniel W. Drezner, "Worst. Commander in Chief. Ever." Washington Post (Aug. 15, 2017; op-ed). Click here to obtain online.
Fred Kaplan, "Chain of Confusion: Military commanders' rebuke of Trump after Charlottesville points to a crisis for civilian control of the military." Slate (Aug. 16, 2017; op-ed length, about 2 pages). Click here to obtain online. Includes links to their individual statements.
An additional source, if needed: Joint Chiefs' tweeted statements are all included in Travis J. Tritten, "US military service chiefs condemn racism, extremism," Washington Examiner (Aug, 16, 2017). Click here to obtain online.
Formal and informal institutions of executive-branch "lawmaking"
** Vivian S. Chu and Todd Garvey, "Executive Orders: Issuance, Modification, and Revocation." CRS Report, Congressional Research Service (Apr. 16, 2014). Click here to obtain online.
Darla Cameron, "What President Obama's executive actions mean for President Trump." Washington Post (updated Jan. 31, 2017). Executive orders, memoranda, etc.; conditions making reversal easy or hard; links to related articles. Click here to obtain online.
Center for Effective Government, "Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking." About 4 pages; you need not go on to the links in the outline at bottom. Most important thing to be aware of: Once a regulation is made in this fashion, repealing it requires the same whole operation be done again. Click here to obtain online.
** Katy J. Harriger, "The Law: Executive Power and Prosecution: Lessons from the Libby Trial and the U.S. Attorney Firings." Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 38, No. 3 (Sep. 2008), pp. 491-505. Click here to obtain online.
** Neal Devins and Louis Fisher, "The Steel Seizure Case: One of a Kind?" Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 19 (2002), pp. 63-86. Click here to obtain online. The story of the steel seizure, and the Court's willingness (in those days, as earlier) to rule on executive actions connected with foreign policy.
For reference purposes: Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Supreme Court opinions excerpted by UMKC law professor Doug Linder. Justice Jackson's concurrence is the most famous argument here.
** Louis Fisher, "Presidential Inherent Power: The “Sole Organ” Doctrine." Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 37, no. 1 (March, 2007), pp. 139-152.
David Frum, "The Problem with 'Containing' Donald Trump." The Atlantic (Oct. 9, 2017). Click here to obtain online. Worries following Corker's remarks about "day care" in the White House, since it's largely by generals.
Benjamin Wittes, "The Disturbing Paradox of Presidential Power." Foreign Policy (Sep. 12, 2017). Click here to obtain online.
Bruce Ackerman, The Decline and Fall of the American Republic (2010).
Describe one constitutional issue (or connected set of issues) implicated in some actions or controversies during the Trump presidency. The constitutional stakes may be narrow and legalistic (the emoluments clause) or, at the other extreme, involve distant norms (prosecutorial independence; rejection of white supremacy) of political behavior that are derived from or contribute to constitutional goals and concerns. Establish the arguments--yours, the participants', or both---for why recent political actions do and do not constitute constitutional violations.
You may take any side, or no side. Your main job is to clarify the issue, or the claimed issue, and to analyze it.
Papers are due via email by 6:00am on Tuesday Oct. 31. Papers received by 6:00pm Monday Oct. 30 will receive 3 extra points credit (out of a possible 100 on the first draft).
I will distribute all papers on Tuesday, and once again they will serve as the reading assignment for Thursday Nov. 2. Be prepared to give a couple minutes' verbal introduction to your essay in class to begin the discussion. Be prepared with comments or questions about one another's essays.
Revised draft due Nov. 16.
For each of the three issues below -- speech freedom and hate speech; recent trends in the role of media in politics; and new claims about freedom of religion -- be prepared to discuss the general questions given.
What limits does the law place on hate speech? What dangers could free speech pose to the constitutional system itself?
Snyder v. Phelps (2011), the Westboro Baptist Church case.
United States Courts, "Facts and Case Summary -- Snyder v. Phelps." Click here to obtain online.
Sean Gregory, "Why the Supreme Court Ruled for Westboro." Time (Mar. 3, 2011) Click here to obtain online.
Alan Brownstein and Vikram David Amar, "Afterthoughts on Snyder v. Phelps." Cardozo Law Review de novo (Nov. 22, 2011), pp. 43-45. Click here to obtain online.
Matal v. Tam (2017), the "Slants" case.
"Matal v. Tam." Oyez, 28 Oct. 2017. Click here to obtain online.
Eugene Volokh, "The Slants (and the Redskins) win: The government can't deny full trademark protection to allegedly racially offensive marks." The Volokh Conspiracy blog, Washington Post (June 19, 2017). Click here to obtain online.
Tim Wu, "How Twitter Killed the First Amendment." New York Times (Oct. 27, 2017). Click here to obtain online.
Ryan Holiday, "I Helped Create the Milo Trolling Playbook. You Should Stop Playing Right Into It." Observer (02/07/17). Click here to obtain online.
also recommended: Prof. Doug Linder's (UMKC Law) webpage on "Regulation of Fighting Words and Hate Speech" in his site Exploring Constititutional Conflicts (dated 2017 when viewed 10/28/2017). Page is undated; discusses cases up to Snyder v. Phelps (with links to the opinions). Click here to obtain online.
The role of the "press"
What role do the news media play in constitutional democracy? Is this role threatened?
Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis, "Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online." Data & Society Research Institute report (May 15, 2017). Read pages 2-48 (notice that several pages are just artwork or mostly empty; and pages 50-56. Click here to obtain online.
What new claims are being made on behalf of "free exercise of religion"? Does this pose any threat to other rights and freedoms?
Micah Schwartzman, Richard Schragger, and Nelson Tebbe, "The New Law of Religion." Slate (July 3, 2014). Click here to obtain online.
Roger Parloff, "Christian Bakers, Gay Weddings, and a Question for the Supreme Court." The New Yorker (Mar. 6, 2017). Click here to obtain online.
Scott Shackford, "Justice Department Takes Baker's Side in Gay Wedding Cake Case Before Supreme Court." Reason.com (Sep. 7, 2017). Click here to obtain online.
Note: Essay 2 revision due Nov. 16.
On Nov. 16, we'll do two topics: a new constitutional convention AND the hackground to Watergate.
Nov. 16. Be prepared to discuss these proposals for a constitutional convention. Who are the supporters? What are their issue goals, and what are their strategies? What do you think will happen if they succeed in calling such a convention?
Fred Lucas, "How States Are Trying to Force Federal Government to Control Spending." The Daily Signal (April 11, 2017).
Mary Bottari, "ALEC Push for Constitutional Convention Hits a Roadblock of Infighting, Legal Questions." Moyers & Company (Aug. 3, 2017).
Webpage of the American of Legislative Exchange Council on "Proposing Constitutional Amendments by a Convention of the States: A Handbook for State Lawmakers", just to see what it is.
Walter E. Dellinger, "The Recurring Question of the 'Limited' Constitutional Convention." Yale Law Journal, Vol. 88 Issue 8 (July 1979), pp. 1623-1640.
Be prepared to comment on this question: What is wrong, in terms of constitutional democracy, with the activities discussed by Emery prior to the Watergate burglary?
Here is a recent, brief but descriptive one from the PBS Newshour.
With reference to the constitutional issue to identified in Essay 2: does this issue present a threat to the administration's survival? A threat of some significant constitutional failure? A threat to democracy generally? As appropriate, refer in your explanation to issues of weakening democratic or civic norms; rhetorical or ideological developments that threaten some aspect of constitutional functioning; and to relevant historical or comparative examples.
Papers are due via email by 6:00am on Tuesday Dec. 5. Papers received by 5:00pm Monday Dec. 4 will receive 3 extra points credit (out of a possible 100 on the first draft).
I will distribute all papers on Tuesday, and once again they will serve as the reading assignment for Thursday Dec. 7. Be prepared to give a couple minutes' verbal introduction to your essay in class to begin the discussion. Be prepared with comments or questions about one another's essays.
Revised draft due NOON Sunday Dec. 17 in order to receive a grade by Dec. 21. This is during final exam period, so plan accordingly. You may turn your revision in as late as our official final exam period, 6:00 pm Wed. Dec. 20 without penalty, but you may then temporarily receive a grade of Incomplete for the course.
Three papers, at least as shown in course outline and schedule at left. Each is to be at least 1600 words in length, and the total length of the three essays is to be at least 5700 words (for example, two essays of 1600 words and one essay of 2500).
Using Times New Roman 12 point with 1-inch margins, a 1600-word essay will amount to about 4-5 pages in text length. In all cases, don't worry if the length is a bit greater.
These aren't formal research papers, but rather more in the nature of well informed long-form essays. You should bring in outside material to apply course ideas to a chosen topic. The more you can connect ideas from the assigned readings to your essay topic, the better.
Revised essays. As required for every WI course, you must revise each essay based on my feedback concerning both style and content. Graded first-try essays will be handed back within a few days, and the revisions will be due several days later, as specified in the course outline and schedule.
In turn, the essay grade will be weighted as follows: 2/3 for the first drafts, 1/3 for re-written drafts.
weekly discussion includes classroom participation, brief presentations of your essay research, and any weekly precis on the readings.
I will give you private feedback on class participation along the way.

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