Curriculum Guide · Courses

Judge Davis

LL.M Course 348 (cross-listed) | 2 credit hours

This 2-hour course will address the tension between liberty and security in times of crisis. The Supreme Court has said that the Constitution does not change in times of emergency. By contrast, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Attorney General, Francis Biddle, said that “The Constitution has not greatly bothered any wartime President.” This course will examine the trade-offs presented in war and other states of emergency. Using historical and comparative material to shed light on the current crisis, the course will address the respective roles of Congress, the President, and the courts in times of emergency; the targeting of foreign nationals; and whether there is or ought to be an “emergency exception” to constitutional principles. We will examine such issues as preventive detention, surveillance standards, enemy combatants, military tribunals, the role of international tribunals, the targeting of foreign nationals, and regulation of speech and association.

Students may not receive credit for this course and the seminar, Current Issues in National Security and Civil Liberties Seminar.