Legal Studies 252 - Law and Personal Freedom

This course will explore the nature of freedom in the United States, focusing on constitutional guarantees founded in the historical role of the law. Issues covered will be Privacy, Obscenity, Race, War on Drugs, Freedom from and of Religion, Right to Counsel, and Search and Seizure. The objective will be to trace the evolution of these issues rooted in the Bill of Rights and Supreme Court doctrine. Case law will be read and analyzed in order to extract judicial theory. Scholarly arguments supporting and critiquing American jurisprudence will also be discussed. A disproportionate amount of the course's time will be spent on addressing the legitimacy of the Court's decisions and critiquing whether they remain in harmony with the intent of the Framers of the Constitution.

Open to freshman and sophomore Legal Studies majors. Pre Req: LEGAL 250 After Freshmen and Sophomores register for courses, this course will be opened to all LEGAL majors.