PSC 3020
Fall, 2014
Congress and the Constitution: A Digital Humanities Project
“And if I am to answer your appeal to me as a witness, I must say that the real
measure of the powers meant to be granted to Congress by the Convention, as I
understood and believe, is to be sought in the specifications, to be expounded,
indeed, not with the strictness applied to an ordinary statute by a court of law, nor,
on the other hand, with a latitude that, under the name of means for carrying into
execution a limited Government, would transform it into a Government without
limits.”
James Madison to M. L. Hurlbert
Montpellier
May, 1830
Instructors
Professor Ron Peters
Office: Monnet 101
Hours: by appointment
Phone: 405-821-4320
Email: rpeters@ou.edu
Professor Cindy Rosenthal
Office: Monnet 101
Hours: Monday 1:30-3:30 p.m. or
by appointment
Phone: 325-6372
Email: csrosenthal@ou.edu
IACH Fellow
Graduate Assistant
Joshua Zingher
Office: Carnegie 230
Hours: TBA
Phone: 325-2019
Email: zinger@ou.ed
Heather Walser
Office: Carl Albert Ctr. Archives
Hours: To be announced
Email: heather.c.walser@gmail.com
Archivists
Robert Lay: phone 325-6372; email rlay@ou.edu
Bailey Hoffner: phone325-6372; email baileys@ou.edu
Classroom: Monnet 452
Days and Time:
Class Meetings: Monday-Wednesday-Friday 9:30-10:20
Scheduled Project Hours TBD
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Course Description
The course is comprised of two interconnected elements.
(1)The first element is a substantive introduction to theory and research on the role
of the Congress under the U.S. Constitution, and the relationship of the Congress to
the coordinate branches of the federal government as well as to the state
governments in interpreting and applying the Constitution. This element is again
divisible into two components.
One component is the Congress’s role in the system of separated powers under the
Constitution. Just what powers does the Congress have? How is the exercise of the
Congress’s constitutional power affected by its relationships with the executive and
judicial branches? What have been the major controversies surrounding Congress’s
constitutional role?
A second component is the interpretation of the Constitution itself. The Supreme
Court, as Chief Justice Marshall famously said, has a primary role as the interpreter
of the Constitution, from a procedural point of view perhaps the final say. But the
members of the Congress, like the president, swear an oath to protect and defend
the Constitution. If so, then they must also undertake to interpret and apply it in the
legislative process. What, then, are the sources upon which the Congress relies in
interpreting the Constitution? Where in the congressional process does
constitutional interpretation take place? How does the Congress respond to the
decisions of the Supreme Court?
(2)The second element is the creation of a set of student-developed projects on
specific issues pertaining to Congress and the Constitution drawing on the archival
resources of the Carl Albert Center, public documents, secondary books and articles,
and Internet sources. These projects will be undertaken by student teams, and will
contribute to a new digital humanities project on Congress and the Constitution cosponsored by the Carl Albert Center and the Institute for American Constitutional
Heritage.
For the Fall, 2014 semester, the course will focus on two specific themes: Congress’s
power of the purse and Congress’s power of presidential impeachment and removal
from office.
Students will thus study the role of the Congress in the constitutional system and
develop specific skills in archival and internet-based research, digital technologies,
digital humanities, teamwork, and narrative historical writing.
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The early weeks of the semester will focus primarily to the first element, the study
of Congress and its role in the constitutional system. This component will be
combined with instruction on principles of archiving and archival research,
internet-based research, technologies and principles of digital storage and retrieval,
and creation of web-based research and instructional packages. The specific
schedule is provided below.
The project component of the course will be undertaken by project teams. Students
should expect to be scheduled during non-class hours to engage in research in
the Carl Albert Center Congressional Archives.
Required Texts
Louis Fisher. 2007. Constitutional Conflicts Between Congress and the President, 6th
Edition, Revised. University Press of Kansas.
Neal Devins and Keith E. Whittington, eds. 2005. Congress and the Constitution.
Duke University Press.
Course Requirements
Congress and the Constitution (200 Points)
1. Short Assignments (100 Points Total)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Response Paper
(50) Due September 5
Archival Exercise #1 (25) Due September 15
Archival Exercise #2 (25) Due September 22
Test
(50) On September 26
2. Participation/Attendance. (50 Points)
Students are expected to attend class during the regularly scheduled M-W-F
sessions when they are held. This component of your grade will apply to your
attendance and participation when the entire class meets.
Archival Projects (300 Points)
4. An individual paper relating to the team project. This individual paper should
draw upon your work on the topic under investigation. It might provide your
reaction to some aspect of the topic or background research related to it. Students
may wish to supplement their archival research by consulting other publications or
news sources. We will provide more specific instructions. (Due November 100
Points)
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5. Students will receive an individual grade for their participation in the group
projects based in part on peer assessment and in part on faculty assessment of each
student’s contribution to the overall team effort. It is assumed that teams will settle
upon a division of tasks suited to each team member’s skills and interests. (100
Points)
6. Each team will also be given an overall grade that will be assigned to each
member of the team. (100 Points)
Team Outcomes:
The following are the work-products that each team is expected to produce.
Individual assignments will be determined by the teams in consultation with the
instructors.
1) A group report with power point presentation at the end of the semester
providing an overview of the project and the draft narrative. This should be
organized around selected primary source documents that illustrate interesting
aspects of the topic in relationship to Congress’s role under the Constitution.
2) An inventory in spreadsheet form of the documents in our collection related to
each group project. Instructions on this task will be provided by the Archives staff.
3) An inventory of other on-line sources related to the group project and an
identification of other significant related congressional collections whether they are
online or not. Guidelines will be provided.
4) An inventory in spreadsheet form of principal actors related to the group topic
who are still alive and might be interviewed for an audio component; and a
suggested set of interview questions for oral histories. For example, if the topic is
the impeachment of President Nixon, key actors would include members of the
House Judiciary Committee serving at the time.
5) Digitization of selected materials related to the topic. This will take place in
Bizzell Library and there will be an instructional session.
Grading Summary
Reading Response Paper
Archival Assignment #1
Archival Assignment #2
Test
Participation/Attendance
Individual Paper:
Overall Team Grade:
Individual Team Member Grade:
50 points
25 points
25 points
50 points
50 points
100 points
100 points
100 points
4
Total Course Points:
500 points
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the presentation of another person’s work as if it were your own. It
can take many forms. The most obvious form is to turn in a paper that someone else
wrote over your signature. Or, you might copy material from a book or an article
and present it as your own work. When you use words that are directly copied from
a source, you must place them in quotation marks and cite the source. A person
might make a few changes in the text, and then think that it is permissible to present
the material without using quotation marks or without citing the source. This is a
form of paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is still plagiarism, unless you explicitly say that
you are paraphrasing and cite the source from which the original material comes.
Plagiarism is academic misconduct and is severely penalized. Do not plagiarize. If
you do, expect that if you are caught you will face disciplinary procedures that can
include expulsion from the University and will almost certainly result in your
receiving an F in this class. Remember that cheating with the clickers is like any
other form of cheating.
For OU’s policy on Student Ethics and Plagiarism, please consult the following web
site:
http://www.ou.edu/provost/integrity
Decorum
Please arrive on time. Please make sure that your cell phone is turned off during
class.
Policy on Withdrawals and Incompletes
You will only be allowed to withdraw from this course with a passing grade if you
are in fact passing. If you are ill or have some personal situation that prevents you
from attending class, your obligation is to contact us as soon as you start missing
class in order to discuss your situation. Exceptions to this policy will be made only
in cases of complete withdrawal from the University approved by Student Affairs
and the Dean's office.
Incompletes will be given only upon request and for good cause. Incompletes will
not be given if a student has missed so much of the course that it is in a practical
sense impossible to make up the work. If an incomplete is given, the student will be
asked to sign an agreement specifying the work to be completed and the date the
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work will be due. The student will participate in the determination of the deadline.
Extensions will be given only under exceptional circumstances.
Policy on Accommodation.
If you have a disability that may affect your participation or performance in this
class you should contact us personally as soon as possible so that we can discuss
accommodations necessary to ensure full participation and facilitate your
educational opportunity. In particular, if you are qualified and plan to take your
examinations at disability services, you need to provide the written documentation
prior to each exam and make sure that we know that you are planning to take your
exam there so that we can make arrangements for it.
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PSC 3020
Congress and the Constitution
Fall, 2014
Schedule
This schedule is subject to revision although we intend to adhere to it as closely as
possible. Any changes will be announced in class and on D2L. You will note that the
second half of the course is to be devoted to work on the team projects. Much of the
work on these projects will take place outside of formally scheduled class time.
However, there will likely be team meetings during some scheduled class periods.
So please check D2L regularly for announcements, and do not plan any activities
in the 9:30 MWF time block.
Date
Monday,
August 18
Peters
Topic
Congress’s Powers Under
the Constitution
Assignments
The United States Constitution
Wednesday,
August 20
Peters
Friday, August
22
Peters
Monday,
August 25
Rosenthal
Wednesday,
August 27
Rosenthal
Congress and the
Constitution: Theoretical
Introduction
Interpreting the
Constitution
Fisher, Chapter 1
Initial Constitutional
Interpretation by
Congress
Legislation and Delegation
Currie, in D&W
Friday, August
29
Lay/Hoffner
Monday,
September 1
Wednesday,
September 3
Peters
Friday,
September 5
Lay/Hoffner
Monday,
September 8
Rosenthal
Introduction to Archives
Archives
Response Paper Topic Announced
Labor Day
No Class
Legislative Veto
Fisher, Chapter 5
No Class
Archives
Response Paper Due
Deposit in D2L Drop Box
Klarman, in D&W
Civil Rights
Devins and Whittington (D&W),
introduction
Fisher, Chapter 4
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Wednesday,
September 10
Rosenthal
Friday,
September 12
Lay/Hoffner
Super Legislation
Eskridge and Ferejohn in D&W
Mock Research Day
Archives
Archival Assignment #1
Announced
Monday,
September 15
Peters
Wednesday,
September 17
Peters
Friday,
September 19
Lay/Hoffner
Congressional Attitudes
Toward Constitutional
Interpretation
The Constitution in
Congressional Committees
Peabody in D&W
Archival Assignment #1 Due
Deposit in D2L Drop Box
Whittington in D&W
Document Analysis
Archives
Archival Assignment #2
Announced
Monday,
September 22
Rosenthal
Wednesday,
September 24
Rosenthal
Friday,
September 26
Monday,
September 29
Peters
Wednesday,
October 1
Peters
Friday, October
3
Peters
Monday,
October 6
Perters
Wednesday,
October 8
Congressional FactFinding
Devins in D&W
Archival Assignment #2 Due
Deposit in D2L Drop Box
Tushnet in D&W
Evaluating Congress’s
Constitutional
Interpretation
Test
Test
Issue #1: Power of the
Purse
Fisher, Chapter 7
The Budget and
Impoundment Control Act
Schick, “The Battle of the Budget”
D2L
Same
Same
The Reagan Reconciliation
Joseph Hogan, “Ten Years After” D2L
Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
West, “Gramm-Rudman-Hollings and
the Politics of Deficit Reduction” D2L
Thelwell, “Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
Four Years Later” D2L
Texas Holiday
Friday, October Texas Holiday
10
Monday,
Impeachment
October 13
Readings: T.J. Halstead, “An
Overview of the Impeachment
8
Rosenthal
Wednesday,
October 15
Rosenthal
Process,” Congressional Research
Service
https://www.senate.gov/reference/r
esources/pdf/98-806.pdf
Impeachment
Friday, October Impeachment
17
Rosenthal
Monday,
Impeachment
October 20
Rosenthal
Wednesday,
October 22
Rosenthal
Impeachment
Friday, October
24
Rosenthal
Monday,
October 27
Wednesday,
October 29
Friday, October
31
Monday,
November 3
Wednesday,
Archives
David Kendall, “Standards for
Impeachment,” excerpt from the
White House Response to the Starr
Report on the Impeachment of
President Bill Clinton.
(http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/New/
html/clinton10-2b.html )
Stephen Presser, “Standards for
Impeachment,” excerpt from The
Heritage Guide to the Constitution.
(http://www.heritage.org/constituti
on#!/articles/2/essays/100/standar
ds-for-impeachment )
Fisher, Chapter 6
Todd Garvey and Alissa Dolan,
“Presidential Claims of Executive
Privilege: History, Law, Practice, and
Recent Developments”,
Congressional Research Service,
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/R42
670.pdf (LEARN)
Sullivan, “Impeachment Practice in
an Era of Lethal Conflict” D2L
Archives
Projects
Projects
Project
Projects
Projects
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November 5
Friday,
November 7
Monday,
November 10
Wednesday,
November 12
Friday,
November 14
Monday,
November 17
Wednesday,
November 19
Friday,
November 21
Monday,
November 23
Wednesday,
November 25
Friday,
November 27
Monday,
December 1
Wednesday,
December 3
Friday,
December 5
Projects
Projects
Projects
Projects
Projects
Projects
Projects
Individual Project Paper Due
Deposit in D2L Drop Box
Projects
Thanksgiving No Class
Thanksgiving No Class
Project Presentations
Project Presentations
Project Presentations
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