Civil Liberties and the Bill of Rights

Course No. 8530 (36 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
Taught by John E. Finn
Wesleyan University
Ph.D., Princeton University
1. What Are Civil Liberties?
2. The Bill of Rights—An Overview
3. Two Types of Liberty—Positive and Negative
4. The Court and Constitutional Interpretation
5. Marbury v. Madison and Judicial Review
6. Private Property and the Founding
7. Lochner v. New York and Economic Due Process
8. The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment
9. Fundamental Rights—Privacy and Personhood
10. Privacy—Early Cases
11. Roe v. Wade and Reproductive Autonomy
12. Privacy and Autonomy—From Roe to Casey
13. Other Privacy Interests—Family
14. Other Privacy Interests—Sexuality
15. Same-Sex Marriages and the Constitution
16. The Right to Die and the Constitution
17. Cruel and Unusual? The Death Penalty
18. The First Amendment—An Overview
19. Internal Security and the First Amendment
20. Symbolic Speech and Expressive Conduct
21. Indecency and Obscenity
22. Hate Speech and Fighting Words
23. The Right to Silence
24. Why Is Freedom of Religion So Complex?
25. School Prayer and the Establishment Clause
26. Religion—Strict Separation or Accommodation?
27. The Free Exercise Clause—Acting on Beliefs
28. Free Exercisee and “the Peyote Case”
29. Two Religion Clauses—One Definition?
30. Slavery and Dred Scott to Equal Protection
31. Brown v. Board of Education
32. Equality and Affirmative Action
33. Equality and Gender Discrimination
34. Gender Discrimination as Semi-Suspect
35. The Future of Equal Protection?
36. Citizens and Civil Liberties