Entries by Title

• 01.A: Lecture Outline: The Course Rules, Subject Matter & Teaching Approach
• 01.B: Greetings! I'm Your Professor.
• 01.C: The Course Subject Matter
• 01.D: My Teaching Approach in the Class -- Developmentalism, Philosophy, but Never Law for its Own Sake
• 01.E: Course Rules -- Quizzes, Exams, Textbooks & Emails
• 01.F: Course Rules -- Quality Points
• 01.G: Course Rules -- Grades
• 01.H: Course Rules -- The Student Parliament
• 01.I: Tips for Success in the Course
• 02.A: Lecture Introduction: The Midieval Political Order in England and The Beginning of its End
• 02.B: Class Announcements
• 02.D: The Midieval Political Order: Diving Right, Chains of Being, Social Rank, Patriarchy & Deference
• 02.E: Religion and Society in England in the Middle Ages Through the 1500s
• 02.F: Absolute Monarchy & Its Prerogatives
• 02.G: Out of the Dark: Radical Ideas Begin to Challenge the Medieval Political World
• 03.A:Lecture Introduction: England as the First Modern Country in History -- The Glorious and Financial Revolutions
• 03.B: Class Announcements
• 03.C: Review of Previous Lecture
• 03.D: England and the High Seas -- Water Becomes Her Advantage
• 03.E: Violations of the Chain of Being -- Social Transformation & "Politics" in England
• 03.F: The Glorious Revolution: England Creates a Constitutional Monarchy
• 03.G: England's Financial Revolution -- The Great Invention of Finance Capitalism
• 03.H: The Rise of the Two Party System in English Politics
• 03.I: England as the First Modern Country in History
• 04.A: Lecture Outline: The New World and the New American Colonies
• 04.B: Class Announcements
• 04.E: The Empries Compete For Conquest of the New World
• 04.F: An Examination of the New English Colonies
• 04.G: The Colonial Success -- Population Growth and Mercantilism
• 05.A: Lecture Outline: The Beginning of the End: England Fumbles Her American Colonies
• 05.B: Class Announcements
• 05.D: The Structuring of Mercantilism: Britain and Her American Colonies
• 05.E: The Colonies Become A Success: Economics, Population, Government & More
• 05.F: England Fumbles Her Colonies: From the French/Indian War, Through the Stamp Act to Bloodshed
• 06.A: Lecture Outline: The Rhetoric of Independence
• 06.B: Class Announcements
• 06.C: Review of Previous Lecture
• 06.D: Class Discussion: "No Taxation Without Representation" -- Was it All Just Rhetoric?
• 06.E: Understanding the Taxation Issue: The Colonists Never Wanted Representation; They Wanted Local Rule.
• 06.F: The Constitutional Convention -- Organization & Protocol
• 06.F: What is "Unconstitutional" in the British System? The Lessons of James Otis.
• 06.G. America Becomes Independent -- Extra-Legal Assemblies, The Declaration & Sociological Factors
• 07.A: Lecture Outline: The Need for Central Authority and the Call of the Convention.
• 07.B: Class Announcements
• 07.C: Review: Taxation, Constitutionality & Independence
• 07.D: The Articles and the States: Early Experiments in Self Governance.
• 07.E: The Failure of the Articles and the Nagging Question -- Was the Revolution About Nationhood or Independence?
• 07.G: Understanding the Plans of Governance; Virginia, New Jersey & The Great Compromise
• 08.A: Lecture Outline: The Philosophy, Architecture and Design Principles Behind the American Constitutution
• 08.B: Class Announcements
• 08.C: Review of Previous Lecture
• 08.D: The Philosophic Significance of the American Constitution
• 08.E: What the American Constitution Does to the Statutory Power -- the Power to Govern Has Never Been More Difficult
• 08.F: The Architecture and Engineering of the American Constitution -- A Machine for Self Governance Premised Upon Structured Conflict.
• 08.G: Getting Broader Perspective -- There is Parliamentary Philosophy Hidden Beneath the Constitutional Form
• 09.A: Lecture Outline: Ratification, Democracy, Political Parties, and the Early Supreme Court
• 09.B: Class Announcements
• 09.C: Review of Previous Lecture
• 09.D: Ratification of the Constitution
• 09.E: How Democratic Was the New Republic?
• 09.F: Hamiliton v. Jefferson -- The Development of Political Parties in America
• 09.G: A Look at the Early Supreme Court -- Washington Appointments, Circuit Riding, Seriatim Opinions, etc.
• 09.H: How to Brief Cases -- A Brief Introduction.
• 10.A: Lecture Introduction: Marbury v. Madison and Judicial Review in the New Republic
• 10.B: Class Announcements
• 10.D: The Story of the Judiciary Act of 1789
• 10.E: The Federalists in Retreat -- The Story of the Midnight Judges
• 10.F: Marbury v. Madison -- the Historic Decision
• 10.G: Was Marbury the Product of Partisan Ideology or Was it a Herculean and Correct Exposition of the Law?
• 10.H: Judicial Review in the New Republic
• 11.A: Lecture Outline: The Federalist Supreme Court and Its Early Bouts With Jeffersonian States in the New Republic
• 11.B: Class Announcements
• 11.D: Why Judicial Review Was Controversial -- the Cultural Confusion Produced by the Accident of American Constitutionalism
• 11.E: Chisholm v. Georgia -- Lessons for the Court From its Political Culture
• 11.F: Martin v. Hunter's Lessee -- The Triumph of the Constitution and the Rule of Law?.
• 11.G: McCullough v. Maryland and the National Bank -- Marshall's Logic Strikes Again
• 11.H: Judicial Power, Wisdom & Tyranny in the New Republic
• 11.H: Judicial Power, Wisdom, Tryanny and Politics -- De Tocqueville v. Hamilton
• 12.A: Lecture Outline: An Introduction to Federal Power and John Marshall's Commerce Clause
• 12.B: Class Announcements
• 12.C: Explaining Your Final Course Paper
• 12.D: Warning: Part II of the Course May Be More Difficult!
• 12.F: Introduction to Part II of the Course: Teaching Federal Power Through The Idea of Regime Politics
• 12.G: The Fundamental Problem: What Does The Constitution Actually Allow Congress to Do?
• 12.H: Gibbons v. Ogden: The Facts of the Dispute
• 12.I: Class Discussion: Who Should Have Won the Gibbons Case and What Do You Consider When Answering This Question?
• 12.J: Hercules Strikes Again: The Ruling In Gibbons v. Ogden
• 12.K: Brown v. Maryland and the Original Package Rule
• 13.A: Lecture Outline: The Taney Court's Turn at Defining Federal Power Through the Commerce Clause
• 13.B: Class Announcements
• 13.C: Review of Previous Lecture: John Marshall's Federal Commerce Clause
• 13.E: An Introduction to Roger Brooke Taney
• 13.F: The Taney Court and the Rise of State Police Powers
• 13.G: Roger Taney's Commerce Clause: Cooley and the License Cases
• 14.A: Lecture Outline: Protecting the Economic Goliaths; the Rise of the Laissez Faire Commerce Clause
• 14.B: Class Announcements
• 14.C: Review of Previous Lecture: The Meaning of "Commerce" From Marshall to Taney
• 14.D: Social Transformation in the Late 1800s -- Jefferson's America Dies as Hamilton's America Grows Out of Control
• 14.E: E.C. Knight -- Laissez Faire Protects The Economic Goliaths
• 14.F: Hammer v. Dagenhart -- Laissez Faire Ideology Strikes Again
• 14.G: Understanding What the Laissez Faire Commerce Decisions Actually Did to Protect Industry From Regulation
• 14.H: What a Laissez Faire Commerce Clause Would Actually Look Like, If It Were to Exist
• 14.I: Conceptualizing the Commerce Problem -- What Exactly is "Regulating Commerce?"
• 15.A: Lecture Outline: How Laissez Faire Stole the Taxing Power from the Constitution
• 15.B: Class Announcements
• 15.C: Review of Previous Lectures: Playing Political Football With the Commerce Clause
• 15.D: McCray v. United States -- Taxing Power as it Should Be?
• 15.E: Bailey v. Drexel -- Taxes, Penalties, and Language Games
• 15.F: United States v. Butler -- Laissez Faire's Theft of the Federal Taxing Power.
• 15.G: The Significance of Butler -- Regime Politics Strikes Again.
• 15.H: Another Laissez Faire Victory: How Lochner and Substantive Due Process Stopped the States From Regulating Business
• 15.I: The Begininning of the End for Laissez Faire: The Great Depression and the Failure of Capitalism
• 16.A: Lecture Outline: Custard's Last Stand: Laissez Faire Tries to Stop the Roosevelt Hegemony
• 16.B: Class Announcements
• 16.C: Review of Previous Lecture: The Laissez Faire Decisions.
• 16.D: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Ideological Significance of the New Deal
• 16.E: Schechter Poultry: The Facts and the Decision
• 16.F: The Significance of Schechter and Roosevelt's Reaction to the Decision
• 16.G: Carter v. Carter Coal -- The New Deal is Obstructed Yet Again
• 16.H: The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse
• 16.I: Roosevelt's Final Solution to the Laissez Faire Justices -- The Court Packing Plan.
• 17.A: Lecture Outline: Roosevelt Wins Again, And The Second American Republic is Born
• 17.B: Class Announcements
• 17.C: Review of Previous Lecture: Laissez Faire Obstructs the New Deal
• 17.D: West Coast Hotel -- The New Deal's First Attack Squadron Arrives.
• 17.E: What Caused Justice Robert Owens to Switch His Vote?
• 17.F: NLRB -- Out With The Old and In With the New.
• 17.G: Class Discussion: What Does the Court's Switch in NLRB Say About Judging, Power, Politics, Law & Society?
• 17.H: The Roosevelt Court Justices Finally Arrive
• 17.I: Wickard v. Filburn -- To Infinity And Beyond.
• 17.J: Other New Deal Decisions -- You Don't Have to be Regulating Commerce In Order To "Regulate Commerce"
• 17.K: The Significance of New Deal Constitutionalism: Do We Have a Parliamentary System When it Comes to Federal Power?
• 18.A: Lecture Outline: The Rehnquist Court -- David Draws its Sword Against Goliath, but Then Backs Away
• 18.B: Class Announcements
• 18.C: Review of Previous Lecture: The Ascendency of the New Deal's Commerce Clause and the "Second Republic"
• 18.D: Using the "Do-All" Clause to Outlaw Discrimination Instead of Using the Discrimination Clauses From the Civil War Amendments
• 18.E: United States v. Lopez -- The Rehnquist Era Fires Its First Shot.
• 18.F: United States v. Morrison and Breyer's Dissent -- Is the Court Entering a Danger Zone?
• 18.G: Gonzalez v. Raich -- Why Did David Back Away From Goliath?
• 18.H: The Big Picture -- Is the Commerce Problem a Failure of Law or an Intelligent Innovation; and Do We Have a Parliamentary System in Place of Limited Government?
• 19.A: Lecture Outline: The Civil War Cases -- Lincoln, Law, Power & War
• 19.B: Class Announcements
• 19.D: Lincoln and the Civil War -- Was LIncoln Lawless, and Should "Law" Matter in a Time of War?
• 19.E: The Prize Cases -- the Presidency as The Leading Institution During Times of War
• 19.F: Ex Parte Milligan -- When Should Congress or the President Be Able to Suspend Habeas Corpus?
• 19.G: Ex Parte McCardle -- Revoking the Court's Jurisdiction Pursuant to Article III
• 19.H: Are There LImits on the Power of Congress to Revoke the Court's Jurisdiction? If Not, Couldn't You Create a Parliamentary System This Way?
• 19.I: What Do the Civil War Cases and the Other Powers Cases Say About the Court's Function in American Government? Are Powers Cases Different Than Liberty Cases?
• 20.A: Lecture Outline: The President as "Power Ranger" -- The Japanese Internment, the Nazi Saboteurs and the Ideology of Curtiss Wright
• 20.B: Class Announcements
• 20.C: The Social Context of the Japanese Internment -- Discrimination and Hysteria
• 20.D: "The Final Solution" -- Rounding Up American Citizens Because of Their Ethnicity
• 20.E: Fred Korematsu's Story -- What Does it Say About the Court's Function in American Government, and About Supreme Court Judging?
• 20.F: The Case of the Nazi Saboteurs -- How is Quirin Different From Milligan and Was the Result Proper?
• 20.G: Why Didn't Congress' "Captures Clause" Control the Fate of the Enemy Combatants in Quirin?
• 20.H: The Ideology of Curtiss-Wright Versus the Framer's Article II -- Will The Real President Stand Up?
• 20.I: Views About Presidential Power and the Vesting Clause in the 1900s
• 20.J: Belmont and Executive Agreements -- Another Gift of New Power From the Courts?
• 20.K: Conceptualizing How the Court Functions in American Government When Political Hegemony Captures the "Policy Branches"
• 21.A: Lecture Outline: Putting the Breaks on Emergency Presidential Power -- Youngstown, Hamdi & Hamdan
• 21.B: Class Announcements
• 21.C: Summarizing Presidential Power: How the Modern Presidency Changed From a Madisonian to a Hamiltonian Institution
• 21.D: How Emergency Powers Can Be Both Legal and Extra-Legal; and Conceptualizing How Presidential Power Grows During War
• 21.E: Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer -- The Facts of the Case
• 21.F: The Propping Up of Congress in Youngstown -- Were the Liberal/Conservative Views Contradictory, and Does the Middle Position Work?
• 21.G: Dames & Moore -- An Explanation of How Hidden Executive Power Might be Legally Structured
• 21.H: Hamdi -- Detention and the Due Process Ritual
• 21.I: Hamdan -- The Court Props Up Congress, But What if Congress Doesn't Want to Play?
• 22.A: Lecture Outline: Three Epochs in the History of Presidential Power, and Does Liberal Legal Culture Want to Subordinate Article II to Article I?
• 22.B: Class Announcements
• 22.C: Introduction: There Are Three Distinct Epochs in the History of the Construction of Presidential Power in American Government
• 22.D: Epoch I in the Hisotry of Executive Power -- The Framer's Presidency: A Race Car Without an Engine?
• 22.E: Epoch II in the History of Executive Power -- The Age of the American Caesar
• 22.F: Epoch III in the History of Executive Power -- Liberal Legal Culture Reigns in the President's Emergency Prerogatives
• 22.G: Class Discussion: Does Liberal Legal Culture Represent a Threat to Article II Constitutionalism? Are Article I Powers More Legitimate Than Article II Powers?
• 23.A: Lecture Outline and Annoucements -- Presidents, Starting War and Evading Law?
• 23.B: Review of Previous Lecture: Three Epochs in Presidential Power
• 23.C: So Who Really Has The Power To Start War Anyhow? Do Presidents Abuse Their Shooting Capacity? Is the War Powers Act Constitutional?
• 23.D: Presidents and the Rule of Law -- Pardons and Impeachment
• 23.E: Presidents and the Rule of Law -- Investigating and Suing Presidents, and Executive Privilege