S. Perspectives on the Presidency

The Public Law Workshop is intended to expose students to current scholarship in the public law area and to offer students an opportunity to learn about the scholarly enterprise more generally. Past PLWs have focused on issues such as federalism, the presidency, democratic institutions in an age of polarization, and income inequality. The focus for Fall 2025 is “Democracy, Authoritarianism, and Constitutional Governance.”

The Workshop is structured around presentations of working papers by leading public law scholars. In some weeks, we will read cases, scholarship, and other materials and discuss these materials in a standard seminar format. For the presentations by outside scholars, students are expected to read the paper and to participate in the discussion, which may be joined by other faculty members.

Students will be required to write four short (1-2 page) response papers and to complete a 20-page final paper. Grades will be based on class participation, response papers, and the final paper.

Enrollment will be limited to approximately 18 students, and admission is by instructor permission. To apply for admission, please send an email to Katelin Walsh, [email protected], with the following information: (1) a law school transcript, (2) a resume, (3), a short (no more than 1 paragraph) statement of why you are interested in taking the seminar. If you have a general idea of what you might be interested in writing about for a final paper, you can include that but you need not yet have a topic. Applications are due by July 18, 2025.

Preference for students with prior public law courses and/ experience.