S. The Constitution, Inequality, and Political Economy

This advanced constitutional law seminar will focus on the Constitution and its relationship to questions of political economy. We will ask how the Constitution and constitutional doctrine have contributed to economic and political inequality and their racial and gender dimensions; to what extent the Constitution empowers, or requires, the government to remedy such problems (or should be understood to do so); how constitutional structure, including federalism, separation of powers, judicial supremacy, Article V, the Senate, and the Electoral College, shapes the political and economic order; and whether using constitutional law to address problems of economic and political inequality is even a worthwhile project. Readings will be a mix of caselaw and academic writing. For some sessions, we will be joined by authors of the scholarship we read and will follow a workshop model. Topics may include slavery and reparations; constitutional battles about labor and workers' rights; the constitutional protection of social welfare rights, including education and housing; property rights; the state action doctrine and debates about negative versus positive rights; and the relationship between judicial supremacy and problems of inequality and democracy. Throughout, we will engage broader questions of constitutional theory. Although our primary focus will be domestic, we will consider how other countries deal with these issues.