EQUALITY IN AMERICAN LAW (PUBR9173)
2 or 3 credits. Seminar.
Prerequisites: Constitutional Law or Constitutional Law I and II

This seminar will examine the development of the concept of equality in American Law. To explore how the concept has worked in practice, the seminar will focus on two areas in which people have sought to use the courts to seek their vision of equality: education and environmental justice. The seminar will explore the litigation strategies that led up to Brown v. Board of Education as well as post-Brown efforts both to implement that decision and to extend constitutional protections beyond race. The seminar will also examine the legal efforts, both statutory and constitutional, to respond to claims of environmental racism. Readings will include a history of the Reconstruction Congress and the passage of the Equal Protection Clause, case law construing the Equal Protection Clause, and such works as Dumping in Dixie, by Robert Bullard, which examines community struggles for environmental justice, and There Are No Children Here, which describes several schools in poor communities.