This course covers the procedures courts use in deciding lawsuits that do not involve criminal misconduct. Much of it is concerned with the process of litigation in trial courts, from the initial documents called pleadings, through the pre-trial process, especially the process of discovery in which parties obtain information from one another, to trial itself.

This course is an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Judicial review, federalism, congressional powers and limits, the commerce clause, and the 10th Amendment are covered, as are the equal protection and due process clauses.

Constitutional Originalism examines both theory and practice of an originalist approach to constitutional theory. Combining lecture, discussion, and problems the goal of the course is to equip students to engage in originalist advocacy, judging, and scholarship.

This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member