Class 15 - Assignment

Congratulations again to moot court teams 5 and 6 for their outstanding performance yesterday. I think that was our best moot court yet (although of course these teams had the advantage of seeing and learning from teams 1-4 first!).

Judging by student questions after the moot court, there is still some confusion about some of the tests and categories we apply to free speech. Tomorrow I intend to clarify the points made in my previous lecture and the moot court, so everyone should have a better understanding

I will also move on to discuss topics related to First Amendment protection of free press. Please read the following overview of free press law:

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/Press/overview.aspx

And at least skim over the short article about protecting confidentiality of sources:

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/Press/topic.aspx?topic=shield_laws

And also the article about bloggers or internet commentators, who perhaps have come to best illustrate the overlap between free speech and free press:

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/Press/topic.aspx?topic=blogging

Class 11 - Assignment

Today and Tuesday we will discuss the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. Racial conflict is among the longest running (and most shameful) narratives in American history, and we see the intersection between race and Constitutional law perhaps nowhere more than in equal-protection cases.

The abolition of slavery after the Civil War was but one important step in Black Americans' struggle for freedom, followed as it was by almost a century of segregationist policies in southern states. While I dearly wish the United States could have completely closed that chapter too by this point in history, just last week, news media reported on a case in Louisiana where a white judge refused to grant a marriage license to an interracial couple (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091015/ap_on_re_us/us_interracial_rebuff). Clearly, there is still some ways to go to abolish bigotry, notwithstanding the election of America's first Black president in 2008.

For the next two classes, please read textbook pages 223-247 and familiarize yourselves with affirmative action policy.