Thurgood Marshall Jurisprudence Course Syllabus, Reading Assignments and Materials
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THURGOOD MARSHALL JURISPRUDENCE COURSE SYLLABUS, READING ASSIGNMENTS AND MATERIALS LAW 860 SPRING 2019 GARY BLEDSOE, ACTING DEAN Thurgood Marshall Page | 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS The Professors ................................................................................................................................. 3 Course Description.......................................................................................................................... 5 Course Objective ............................................................................................................................. 5 Grading ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Accommodations ............................................................................................................................ 5 Participation & Attendance ............................................................................................................. 6 Policies & Procedures ..................................................................................................................... 6 Holiday Schedule ............................................................................................................................ 8 Reading Assignments...................................................................................................................... 9 Required Course Materials ........................................................................................................... 12 Thurgood Marshall Page | 2 THE PROFESSORS NAME: Gary Bledsoe TELEPHONE: EMAIL: [email protected] LOCATION: 231J OFFICE HOURS: Wednesdays 3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. (All other times by appointment only) NOTE FROM THE PROFESSOR: Thurgood Marshall appeared before the court multiple times and won nearly all in very difficult time. And we should say his judicial philosophy was consistent and though he personally believed in a strong military and intelligence apparatus, he was a 100 percent progressive Judge. NOTE FROM THE PROFESSOR: “If you believe you can accomplish everything by "cramming" at the eleventh hour, by all means, don't lift a finger now. But you may think twice about beginning to build your ark once it has already started raining” ― Max Brooks, The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin “Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better”. Jim Rohn Thurgood Marshall Page | 3 COURSEBOOK AND MATERIALS REQUIRED READING: Course Materials prepared by Professor Marcis Johnson in collaboration with Professor Gary Bledsoe ADDITIONAL READING OF INTEREST: Douglas Blackmon, Slavery By Another Name, Anchor Books, A division of Random House, Inc., 2009 Lawrence Goldstone, Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Equal Rights by the Supreme Court, 1865-1903, Bloomsbury Publishing (2011) Rawn James, Jr., Root and Branch, 2010, Bloombury Press; Howard Ball, A Defiant Life, Thurgood Marshall and the Persistence of Racism in America, Crown Publishers, Inc.; Mark Curriden and Leroy Phillips, Contempt of Court: The Turn of the Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism, Faber and Faber, Inc., an affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC (1999); Gilbert King, Devil in the Grove, HarperCollins Publishers; John F. Blevins, Lyons v Oklahoma, The NAACP, and Coerced Confessions Under the Hughes, Stone and Vinson Courts, 1936-1949, 90 Va. L. Rev. 387 (2004) Juan Williams, Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, Three Rivers Press, NY, NY (1998) Carl Rowan, Dream Makers, Dream Breakers, The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall Ron Chernow, Grant Thurgood Marshall Page | 4 COURSE DESCRIPTION This course formally introduces you to the Honorable Justice Thurgood Marshall, his advocacy and his jurisprudence, and where applicable, his personal life to provide context to this civil rights stalwart. The course is also designed to encourage the students’ interest in civil rights and human rights advocacy in what will become a lifetime commitment to making the world a better place for all its occupants. COURSE OBJECTIVE To motivate students to use their intellectual talents to improve living conditions for their fellow human beings. To engage students to use higher level thinking skills to solve practical problems with a view to strong first time performance on the bar examination. To help students develop critical thinking skills needed for complex litigation. GRADING The grade for the course will be determined as follows: Class Participation: 35% Final Paper: 65% ACCOMMODATIONS Reasonable accommodations will be made for anyone with disabilities to effectively participate in the law school program. Reasonable accommodations may include: 1. A change in the law school program, so long as it does not alter the program’s fundamental nature; 2. Structural modifications (i.e., ramps, wide doorways, accessible bathrooms); 3. Providing modified equipment (i.e., braille keyboard on a word processor); and/or 4. Providing aids such as interpreters or readers. PLEASE REFER TO THE STUDENT ACCOMMODATIONS HANDBOOK FOR SPECIFIC PROCEDURES Thurgood Marshall Page | 5 PARTICIPATION & ATTENDANCE Class Participation: Class participation is important, and you should be prepared to discuss all lessons intelligently. Class Attendance: Class attendance is required of all students. Excessive absence from classes may result in the following an administrative withdrawal from the course. Excessive absence is defined as any absence in excess of the permitted absence. (See below) “Absence” shall be defined as either a failure to attend class, or a failure to be present at the commencement of class. Permitted Number of Absences Effective spring semester 2010, the rule governing the permitted number of student absences per course per semester shall be determined by multiplying the number Two (2) by the course credit hours and then subtracting the number one (1) from the result. Based on this formula, the following number of absences has been adopted by faculty for all courses taught at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Type of Course Permitted Number of Absences Six semester hour course 11 Five semester hour course 9 Four semester hour course 7 Three semester hour course 5 Two semester hour course 3 This rule does not relieve the student of the responsibility to drop any course the student decides not to complete after registering for the course. Course Written Assignment Each student will be asked to prepare a written paper of at least 20 pages in length (with double spacing and 12 point type). The deadline for submission of this paper is a required deadline. POLICIES & PROCEDURES Student Rules: Thurgood Marshall Page | 6 It is the responsibility of each student to know the rules and regulations of Thurgood Marshall School of Law. You can access the Rules and Regulations Handbook by Visiting the “Student Rules and Regulations 2017-2018.” available at http://www.tsulaw.edu/student_affairs/2017-2018_Rules_Regulations.pdf Computers and Cell Phones: The use of laptops, tablets, cell phones, or any other internet access/electronic device during a class session is prohibited unless specifically permitted by the professor(s). Any student violating this policy will receive a letter grade reduction. Thurgood Marshall Page | 7 HOLIDAY SCHEDULE Thurgood Marshall Page | 8 READING ASSIGNMENTS ALL READING ASSIGNMENTS ARE FROM THE REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS (CM) EXCEPT WHERE STATED OTHERWISE Week One Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, Dred Scott v. Sanford, Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883) Slaughter House Cases, 83 U.S. 36 (1873) Week Two CM Pages 1-32, Weeks Three and Four Pages CM 33-39 Marshall Bi-centenn Ial Recognition Speech, Elena Kagan, For Justice Marshall, 71 Texas Law Review 1125, Ross E. Davies, Five Lessons in Lawyer- ing from Thurgood Marshall, 70 Okla. Law Review 779 Judge Lynn Adelman, The Glorious Juris- Prudence of Thurgood Marshall, 7 Harvard Law and Policy Review 113 (2013) Week Five Early Criminal Cases Pages CM 40-58 THURGOOD MARSHALL JURISPRUDENCE SYLLABUS, READING ASSIGNMENTS AND COURSE MATERIALS FALL Page 9 Week Five Early Education Cases Pages CM 33-39, 73-81, Week Six-Seven The Political Cases Pages CM 58-65 Nixon v. Herndon Nixon v. Condon Grovey v. Townsend Smith v. Allwright Terry v. Adams Mid-Term Exams in Week Eight Week Eight -11 The Education Cases Brown v. Board, Rodriquez, Cooper v. Aaron, CM 117- 137, Coopera at 198 Participatory Advocacy Mendez v. Westiminister, 64 F. Supp 544 (S.D. Cal. 1946), aff’d 161 F. 2d 774 (9th Cir. 1947, en banc). Cooper v. Aaron Participatory Advocacy Pages CM 210 The Missouri, Maryland, Oklahoma and Texas Cases, Brown v. Board of Education Professor Craig Leonard Jackson, Hebert High School and the Brown Aftermath, 21 THURGOOD MARSHALL JURISPRUDENCE SYLLABUS, READING ASSIGNMENTS AND COURSE MATERIALS FALL Page 10 Thurgood Marshall Law Review 45 (1995-1996) Bakke and the Affirmative Action Cases, CM Pages CM 148-158 Kimberly West Falcon, Obxcuring Asian Penalty with Illusions of Black Bonus, 64 U.C.L.A. Law Review 590 (2017) Kimberly West- Faulcon, Reversed Protection: A Discrimination Case Gone Wild, Fisher v. Texas, UC Irvine Law Review, Jan. 2017 (No. 1) Week Twelve (Restrictive Covenants, Sit-ins, Obscenity, Jury CM81-89, 89-116, Selection, 4tth Amendment, Sodomy Laws, First 158-197 Amendment, Labor and Civil Rights