Welcome to Our First Year Seminar!

This course is about freedom or, more specifically, how to be free.

Luckily, we don’t have to guess. Since 1789, we Americans have had a kind of instruction manual that tells us how to organize our political life to maximize freedom for all. And since 1791, we have had a Bill of Rights that spells out all the freedoms and protections we Americans should expect to enjoy.

This course is also about race relations or, more specifically, how the struggle for black civil rights can act as a metaphor or model for anyone yearning to be free. Using the story of race relations in America as an organizing narrative, this course is intended to shed light on the larger story of America in surprising ways. It might surprise you to learn, for instance, that every significant juncture in the evolution of Constitutional law in America was triggered directly or indirectly by events related to race. And it might surprise you to learn that it is not judges on the bench but people working outside the courts – from politicians in Washington to activists at the local level, from lobbyists and business groups to journalists and legal scholars – who are the main drivers of change in constitutional law. They are the non-judicial actors who shape and re-shape America’s ever-evolving constitutional culture.

Landmark cases such as Plessy v. Ferguson or Brown v. the Board of Education will serve as jumping off points to discuss more broadly how certain communicative features built into America’s constitutional democracy can facilitate national dialogues about issues such as racial segregation. What is the Supreme Court’s role in a national debate — as the initiator, final arbiter, or somewhere in between? How does Congress converse with the Court before and after an important decision? How do ordinary people talk back to the Court, especially when they disagree? And, importantly, how does the press help facilitate those various lines of dialogue?

Questions such as these should lead students to the Big Question this course asks them to ponder:

In what ways is America’s system as a constitutional democracy crucially dependent upon the First Amendment?

This course is intended to challenge you to think about the story of race in America through several academic lenses: history, politics, law, sociology. The emotion and drama of this history should show you that learning can be engaging, even exciting. You will be challenged to think critically and independently, to form your own views about the cases and controversies we study. You will be challenged to “think like a lawyer,” which is to say, be able to see both sides of any argument and debate from either perspective. Finally, you will be challenged to learn to present your views using the proper formats, norms and conventions of academic discourse and writing.

This is not a law course per se. I am not here to teach you to be lawyers. I am here to teach you to be Americans who know your heritage and understand what it means to be free in our system. The Constitution does not belong to the Supreme Court. It belongs to all of us living under its protections and debating its evolving meanings. The course is intended to usher you into America’s constitutional culture and show you what’s at stake.

As the old saying goes: “The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance.” Starting with this course, you will learn to be vigilant.