Tom Mayo: Family Law Home Page

De Tocqueville famously pronounced ours "the most perfect federal constitution that ever existed," an assessment shared by no less a legal scholar than Walt Whitman, who wrote, "The Federal Constitution is a perfect and entire thing, an edifice put together . . . not for a day or a year, but for many years, perhaps a thousand, perhaps many thousands." Chief Justice John Marshall, on the other hand, wrote in 1832 to his colleague, Joseph Story: "I yield reluctantly and slowly to the conviction that our constitution cannot last. . . . The union has been prolonged thus far by miracles. I fear they cannot continue."

Marshall's pessimism has been echoed by many in the years since he wrote those words, and it would seem that even some of the incumbents on the Court would agree with him today. This course looks at the broad contours of the Constitution's durable organizational scheme -- the allocation of power among the three branches of the federal government, the dividing line between federal and state authority -- as well as the Supreme Court's role as final arbiter of constitutional meaning. Among other things, we will consider whether Marshall was, in the end, correct.

For a more detailed view of the policies for and content of this course, please read the course guidelines and syllabus.
Old exams are here.
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Last updated: 07 June 2004