Learning Constitutional Law

Hello all; in this final podcast episode I will be signing off with a few last thoughts on constitutional law. There is no new material this week but I did want to offer my congratulations to all of you for completing this course. If you are feeling frustrated, anxious, or maddened by what we've done this semester, I assure you that is all just fine... no one in this world really knows exactly wha...

Welcome to our final episode on new material for our course on Constitutional Law! In this episode, we will cover a lot of ground but with a heavy focus on economic processes. We will begin with discussion of the Contract Clause, take a bit of a roundabout into the 14th Amendment with a due process focus, and then return to the 5th Amendment's Takings Clause. Our concepts this week include one of...

Hi all; welcome to our second-to-last episode of the Con Law podcast for Fall 2024! In this episode, we are going to talk about the powers of Native American tribes. The tribes are specifically recognized entities within the Constitution and by the Congress, but sorting out what level of power and authority those tribes have has been an ongoing debate since the founding of our country. With this e...

Hi all; welcome to part 3 of our discussion on federalism! In this last episode on federalism, we will cover "reserved" powers and a range of associated concepts with that topic: dormant-power theory, mutual-exclusiveness theory, and selective-exclusiveness theory. I'm not going to lie, these are complex concepts and hard to apply/understand. That said, do your best and try to focus more on gettin...

Welcome to our continued discussion of federalism, the division of power between the national (federal) government and state governments. In this episode, we will focus in on where the Supreme Court has established more of the federal/national authority. Our topics this week include the Commerce Clause, the taxing and spending power, concerns about dual federalism, and 5 cases that illustrate more...

Hi all, and welcome back to our weekly podcast--this week, our episode is going to discuss the division of power between the national (federal) government and the many state governments. Federalism is the word we use to capture that division of power... and boy has the power-sharing and power division changed over time! For this episode, we will cover the historical changes in the power division a...

Hello all! In our first week after the midterm exam, we are going to take a slightly different approach and look at different contexts in which government powers are used. First up, we will examine the areas of foreign affairs, terrorism, and war. Which entities have power and in which was on these topics? This episode will go through several cases to give a high-level overview of those powers wit...

It's here... the midterm! In this short episode, I've provided a few tips for you on how to approach the exam as well as described the policies and guidelines you need to follow for this test. I wish you all good luck on the exam!

Hello again everyone; welcome to our final episode before the midterm exam! In this episode, we will get an introduction to administrative law and the bureaucracy, also known as the "administrative state". Our emphasis in this podcast will be on understanding what administrative law is, what the bureaucracy is, the process of creating administrative law (the Administrative Procedure Act), a bit of...

Hello all; welcome to our episode for Week 6! This episode will get into the different types of powers of the presidency (both explicit and implied powers) including topics like vetoes, commutations/pardons, executive privilege, and presidential immunity. A lot of the cases we will encounter this week will involve a bit of a showdown between Congress and the president... with the Supreme Court as...

Welcome everyone to episode 6! This week, we jump into learning about the powers of Congress. We'll talk about features in Article I (like the Necessary and Proper Clause, the Speech and Debate Clause, and legislative vs. non-legislative powers) as well as those things not included in that article (like the nondelegation doctrine). As far as cases, this episode will walk through McCulloch v. Maryl...

With our week 4 episode we begin to delve into the particulars of power, specifically the power of the courts and the Supreme Court. Most of this revolves around judicial review, but this episode will also detail the self-imposed limits that the court has implemented to limit its authority (e.g. the requirements of standing, justiciability, etc.). This episode will also walk through the first 3 ex...

In Episode 4, we'll get down to the processes of selection of individuals to join the Supreme Court, the processes used to choose which cases are decided, the decision-making procedures for cases that are selected... and then how we can break those decisions down for ourselves. This episode wraps with discussion of the layman's terms assignments as well, so don't miss out on those last 5 minutes!

In this episode, we will cover the 8 methods of interpretation presented in our textbook: textual analysis, precedent, Constitutional doctrine, logical reasoning, "living Constitution", foreign law and courts, consequentialism (aka pragmatism), and originalism. We'll also get a brief 'practice' session with these methods using the Kennedy v. Bremerton School district case from 2022. Interpretation...

In this 3-minute podcast introduction, I share a few of my thoughts with you about this class and about the use of the podcasting tool to engage with the course material. Enjoy!

For our first podcast episode, we will examine the POS 420 syllabus, the course Canvas site, and get a bit about the creation/history of the Founders and Framers and the Constitution. This episode also includes just a bit about your instructor to give you a full introduction to this podcast. Welcome to the course!