Nonprofits, the Constitution, and Public Policy

This course will explore the role of the nonprofit sector in American life from several perspectives.
We will look at the key laws that shape, subsidize, and constrain the activities of charities and
foundations, with a focus on their federal tax treatment, and at the constitutional issues raised by
these laws. We will consider the historical development of the sector over the course of the
twentieth century, including the explosive growth since the 1960s and the creation of the
“nonprofit imagination.” And we will engage with scholarly works that seek to theorize, justify, or
criticize the legal treatment of nonprofits and the increasingly prominent place they hold in our
socioeconomic, political, and constitutional order.