Constitutional Controversies
POS 3990
Summer 2013 / Term A
Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Building 50 / Yeager Library
Professor:
Dr. David Ramsey
Dramsey1@uwf.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 9 am – 11 am or by appointment
Building 50 / Room 127
857-6116
“There is almost no political question in the United States that is not resolved sooner or
later into a judicial question.”
- Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America
Course Introduction
The American Founders established a Supreme Court to resolve all cases and
controversies arising under the federal Constitution and its subsequent laws and treaties.
This Court would serve primarily as an appellate tribunal, a court of last resort, reviewing
and remanding, reversing or upholding the rulings of lower courts in both the federal and
state judiciaries. In this course we will examine those elements of the appellate process
often given short shrift in introductory courses on constitutional law, including the
Court’s review of petitions of certiorari, of merits briefs and the corresponding amici
briefs, and oral argument. In addition to gaining experience in uncovering the principles
undergirding precedent and becoming fully familiar with each of the phases in the
appellate process, students will regularly be called on in class to rehearse the arguments
for petitioners and respondents in the 2013 Moot Court problem, Comerford v. United
States, thereby obtaining a practical understanding of the unique challenges and virtues of
appellate advocacy.
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Course Goals
The principal aims of this course are:
* To help students better understand the inner workings of the American judiciary
* To provide students with the opportunity to hone their analytical skills in class
debate as well as through formal writing assignments
* To familiarize students with the various phases of the appellate process
preceding announcement of the Opinion of the Court, including lower court
rulings, review of certiorari petitions, briefs of petitioners, respondents, and amici
curiae, oral argument, and conference.
* To introduce students to the elements of intercollegiate Moot Court competition
* To develop in students a greater appreciation of the role played by the judiciary
in American politics
* To prepare students for more sophisticated consideration of several
contemporary political issues of constitutional significance
Required Texts
Antonin Scalia and Bryan A. Garner. Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges.
(Thomson/West, 2008) ISBN 9780314184719
Course Readings Packet (available by request in campus bookstore)
Recommended Text
Paul I. Weizer. How to Please the Court. (Peter Lang, 2005) ISBN 9780820469492
Online Resources
American Collegiate Moot Court Association (ACMCA): http://falcon.fsc.edu/mootcourt/
This should be your first stop for any questions about Moot Court, its rules,
procedures, purposes, etc.
Supreme Court of the United States: http://supremecourt.gov
Most cert petitions and merits briefs can be found from this page.
SCOTUSblog: http://scotusblog.com
This is where lawyers come to gossip about the Supreme Court, and their reviews
of legal developments are often more up-to-date and precise than coverage in the
media. You should be very familiar with this site by the end of the summer. The
site also frequently posts links to cert petitions and merits briefs.
Oyez: http://oyez.org
A good source for briefs of most cases decided by the Supreme Court. Also worth
noting are the links to transcripts of oral argument.
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Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org
While I would never trust posts on this page without confirmation, entries on
cases are usually more right than wrong, and often help to put a case in context.
Findlaw Dictionary of Legal Terms: http://dictionary.lp.findlaw.com/
Lawyers speak a language of their own. This will help you to make sense of
obscure language in the readings, especially when reading older cases.
Legal Information Institute: http://www.law.cornell.edu/
Although the site does not have every Supreme Court opinion, it has most of
them, and in a more readable format than other sites like Justia and Findlaw.
Besides full text cases, there is a wealth of information on this site, for those
willing to do some digging.
C-Span: http://www.c-span.org/Resources/Supreme-Court-Judiciary.aspx
If you have time to kill, this site is a good place to frequent, not only for its
generally good videos on the Court, but also for the many links to further online
resources that might be of use to those interested in furthering their knowledge of
the law and the legal community.
Grades
4th Amendment Brief
Article II Brief
Final Brief
Quizzes
93 – 100
90 – 92
87 – 89
83 – 86
A
AB+
B
10%
10%
20%
15%
80 – 82
77 – 79
73 – 76
70 – 72
Class Participation
Final Exam
Case Presentations
Case Briefs
BC+
C
C-
66 – 69
60 – 65
< 60
10%
15%
10%
10%
D+
D
F
4th Amendment / Article II Brief: Prior to hearing oral argument in an appellate court,
counsel for petitioners and respondents will submit written briefs pleading the case for
their clients, and supporting their arguments with extensive reference to prior decisions of
the Supreme Court and Circuit Courts. These written arguments help counsel and judges
alike to prepare for oral argument. After reading through the case law, students will
compose briefs of 1000-1500 words for either petitioner or respondent, citing at least four
of the cases read for class in support of your argument. Briefs must be submitted digitally
to turnitin.com by 5 p.m. on the assigned date. Late briefs will be docked 3 points for
each day that they are late.
Final Brief: After receiving feedback on the first two briefs, the student will revise and
resubmit his/her final brief, which should run no longer than 4000 words. Briefs must be
submitted digitally to turnitin.com by 5 p.m. on August 6, 2013. Late briefs will be
docked 3 points for each day that they are late.
Final Exam: The final exam will be composed of multiple choice, matching, short answer
and essay questions. In order to help you better prepare for the final exam, a review sheet
will be posted to eLearning no later than two weeks prior to the exam.
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Case Presentations: Students will take turns presenting cases to the class, and sharing
their thoughts on how the cases could be deployed strategically in oral argument.
Students absent on a day when their group presents will receive a grade of 0 for the
presentation. At the end of the semester your two lowest presentation grades will be
dropped.
Case Briefs: In addition to the in-class presentation, groups will prepare a power point
presentation for each case assigned to it, submit the text of the PowerPoint file to
turnitin.com, and upload the PowerPoint file to the appropriate Topic in the course
Discussions forum in eLearning. See the case brief rubric posted to eLearning for more
details. At the end of the semester your lowest case brief grade will be dropped.
Participation: If you are absent from class then you have not participated. I will take
attendance by hand each afternoon at the beginning of class. Students missing more than
three classes should expect to see their participation grade substantially affected. You fail
the course with your eighth absence. Tardies / partial attendance = 1/2 absence.
Participation grades in my courses tend to track pretty closely with student averages on
the other assignments—no student has ever received either a 100 or a 0 for participation,
and most students score around an 80. Only rarely does a student’s participation grade in
my course differ by more than a letter grade from the average of his or her other graded
assignments, so do not count on getting an A for participation simply because you show
up every day for class. Neither should you assume that your participation grade is
meaningless. Rather, think of it as my final estimation of the quality of your work in class
over the course of the semester. Questions about the readings are always welcome in
class, and will usually result in a higher participation grade, except when such questions
reveal the student’s lack of preparation for class. Students are encouraged to stop by my
office during office hours if they are concerned about their participation grade, but
participation grades will not be posted until final grades are submitted.
Quizzes: Students will be quizzed periodically over lectures, group presentations and
readings. Most quizzes will consist of five to ten multiple choice and True/False
questions. At the end of the semester, your lowest quiz grade will be dropped. There are
no makeup quizzes, regardless of excuse, so be sure to attend class regularly.
Course Requirements
Attendance: I expect every student to attend class faithfully. Students missing more than
three classes, regardless of excuse, can expect to see their class participation grade
substantially diminished. With your eighth absence from the course you will fail
yourself. Students concerned about their attendance should consult the attendance
spreadsheet available on eLearning under “Important Course Information.” The
attendance sheet will be updated roughly every week throughout the semester, and will
constitute the official record of student attendance in the course.
Punctuality: I will do my best to begin class on time. You should certainly do the same. 2
tardies = 1 absence. If you are late to class, be sure to see me after class that day, to
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ensure that you are marked tardy rather than absent. Students leaving class early for
whatever reason will also be marked tardy.
Turnitin.com: Your essays must be submitted to turnitin.com before they will be graded.
Work not submitted to turnitin.com by the due date will be considered late, and penalized
accordingly.
class ID: 6458559
enrollment password: Jurisdiction
If you have registered with turnitin.com before, you can use your old user name and
password. If you have never used turnitin.com before, you will need to set up a new
account. Under the heading “Create a New Account,” click on the link for “Student” and
fill in the appropriate information. Once you have created an account, you will still need
to enroll yourself in my course using the Class ID and Enrollment Password above. If you
have any problems with this process, contact turnitin.com support. If problems persist,
contact me and we will work things out. Finally, in order to protect your privacy, please
make sure that you do not leave your full name on the electronic copy of the paper
submitted to turnitin. Your first name and last initial will suffice.
Expectations for Adademic Conduct / Plagiarism Policy
Students agree to abide by the rules and standards set forth in the UWF Student
Code of Conduct. All written work submitted for this course should be your own.
Do not plagiarize. If you copy a phrase or sentence from another source, whether
text or digital, be sure to place the phrase or sentence in quotation marks, and to cite it by
footnote or parenthetical citation. Students caught plagiarizing on an assignment will
receive a 0 for that assignment. If they are caught plagiarizing a second time, they will
flunk the course. I take plagiarism quite seriously. You have been warned.
All students in all of my classes are expected to complete the online plagiarism
tutorial (available at http://libguides.uwf.edu/content.php?pid=347715&sid=2844385)
and send e-mail confirmation to me that they have received a score of 9 (out of 10) or
higher on the quiz at the end of the module. Students who have taken the quiz for a
course in the past may forward the old test results. By forwarding your plagiarism quiz
results to me, I understand that you are aware of what constitutes plagiarism, and know
what will happen if you are caught plagiarizing in my course. I will not grade any of your
written work until I have received confirmation that you have taken and passed the
library’s plagiarism quiz.
Assistance
The Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) at the University of West Florida
supports an inclusive learning environment for all students. If there are aspects of the
instruction or design of this course that hinder your full participation, such as timelimited exams, inaccessible web content, or the use of non-captioned videos and
podcasts, please notify the instructor or the SDRC as soon as possible. You may contact
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the SDRC office by e-mail at sdrc@uwf.edu or by phone at (850) 474-2387. Appropriate
academic accommodations will be determined based on the documented needs of the
individual.
Weather Emergency Information
In the case of severe weather or other emergency, the campus might be closed and
classes cancelled. Official closures and delays are announced on the UWF website and
broadcast on WUWF-FM.
 WUWF-FM (88.1MHz) is the official information source for the University. Any
pertinent information regarding closings, cancellations, and the re-opening of
campus will be broadcast.
 In the event that hurricane preparation procedures are initiated, the UWF Home
Web Page and Argus will both provide current information regarding hurricane
preparation procedures, the status of classes and the closing of the University.
 Information about hurricane preparedness plans is available on the UWF web site:
http://uwfemergency.org/hurricaneprep.cfm
 Information about other emergency procedures is available on the UWF web site:
http://uwfemergency.org/
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COURSE SCHEDULE
May 14 – Course Introduction
Boumediene v.Bush (oral argument)
Sign up for a group (case brief presentations)
Complete library plagiarism quiz and e-mail confirmation to me
Enroll in turnitin.com
May 16 – Oral Argument (I)
Judicial Process, Chapter 2 (eLearning)
Rehnquist, “How the Court Does Its Work: Oral Argument” (eLearning)
May 21 – General Principles of Legal Argumentation
Scalia, Making Your Case, 1-38
May 23 – What is Moot Court?
Scalia, 39 – 55
2013 ACMA Moot Court Problem Comerford v. U.S. (eLearning)
May 28 – Briefing (I)
Scalia, 57 – 106
O’Brien, “How to Compose a Case Brief” (eLearning)
May 30 – Briefing (II)
Scalia, 107-136
2010 ACMA Winning Brief (eLearning)
June 4 – 4th Amendment Cases (I)
(Group 1) Katz v. U.S.
(Group 2) Smith v. Maryland
June 6 – 4th Amendment Cases (II)
(Group 3) U.S. v. Knotts
(Group 2) Oliver v. U.S.
June 11 – 4th Amendment Cases (III)
(Group 3) U.S. v. Karo
(Group 1) California v. Ciraolo
June 13 – 4th Amendment Cases (IV)
(Group 2) Kyllo v. U.S.
(Group 3) U.S. v. Jones
June 18 – 4th Amendment Cases (V)
(Group 1) Florida v. Jardines
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June 20 – Article II Cases (I)
(Group TBA) The Prize Cases
(Group TBA) Ex Parte Milligan
June 25 – Article II Cases (II)
(Group 3) Costanzo v. Tillinghast
(Group 2) U.S. v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp.
(Group 1) Ex Parte Quirin
June 27 – class cancelled
4th AMENDMENT BRIEF DUE by 5 p.m.
July 2 – Article II Cases (III)
(Groups 1, 2 and 3) Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co v. Sawyer
July 4 – class cancelled
July 9 – Article II Cases (IV)
(Groups 1, 2 and 3) Hamdi v. Rumsfeld
July 11 – Article II Cases (V)
(Groups 1, 2 and 3) Boumediene v. Bush
July 16 – Oral Argument (II)
Scalia, 137 - 165
July 18 – class cancelled
ARTICLE II BRIEF DUE by 5 p.m.
July 23 – Oral Argument (III)
Scalia, 166 – end
July 25 – Scrimmages (I)
Final Exam Review Posted to eLearning
July 30 – Scrimmages (II)
August 1 – Scrimmages (III)
August 6 – class cancelled
FINAL BRIEF DUE by 5 p.m.
– FINAL EXAM –
3:30 – 6:00 p.m., August 8, 2013
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