Course Section | Columbia Law School

Section Description Provided by Instructor

From its inception, the equal protection clause has engendered intense debate about its scope and the institutional competence of the Court to enforce it. In this course, we will examine those historical and contemporary debates as they relate to contests concerning race, gender, and sexual orientation. A key objective will be to uncover conflicts between various conceptions of equality and the interpretive means by which these competing definitions of equality are mediated within Supreme Court doctrine. We will explore as well the traditional concepts of equal protection review such as immutability, discreetness, and insularity and question the ability of these concepts to constitute a firm foundation for equal protection doctrine in contemporary society. In addition to Supreme Court opinions, materials will consist primarily of literature drawn from historical sources, as well as from critical race theory, feminist legal theory, and queer theory.