Americans wage many of today's fiercest policy debates and culture wars as battles over constitutional meaning. In the 12 lectures of Law School for Everyone: Constitutional Law, Professor Eric Berger offers the same introduction to constitutional law he provides to his own law students. You'll come away from this course with a better understanding of our founding document's many nuances and complexities, and the central role it plays in shaping our way of life.
Law School for Everyone: Constitutional Law
Discover how lawyers make sense of what the Constitution says-and doesn't say-led by an award-winning law professor.
Rated 3 out of
5
by
Anonymous from
Informative, but leaves you wanting more....
I rated this course as "good," but I was left wanting more. For example, there is NO discussion at all about the landmark criminal procedure cases, Gideon v. Wainwright, Mapp v. Ohio, or Miranda v. Arizona.
The professor seems to be fixated on civil rights/abortion/gay rights cases, and appears to have a liberal bias.
Date published: 2023-03-13
Rated 5 out of
5
by
DaGeek from
Another homerun by Eric Berger
I first watched Eric Berger's The Constitution through History which is a good companion for this course, although there are some unavoidable overlaps.
He briefly goes through each of the sections of the Constitution. He then explains each section more deeply by looking a various cases that have defined how we interpret this document. He has a wonderful gift of taking what could be a very dry subject and making it very interesting.
If we are going to argue about the Constitution and its meaning, it is not a bad idea to learn something about our foundational document. .
Date published: 2022-12-07
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Protonguy from
Solid Intro to Constitutional Law
Very informative, interesting course. Strongly recommended for anyone seeking an introduction to constitutional law.
Date published: 2022-10-02
Rated 5 out of
5
by
James Offutt from
Excellent!!
Top five of all the many courses I have, which are over 50. I really understand something fundamental now about our country and laws from watching this course. 6 and 7 are especially relevant after the recent Dobbs decision. It's worth your time.
Date published: 2022-07-31
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Totipotent from
Spot On. Revelatory.
I listen to the podcast, 'Strict Scrutiny'. These twelve lectures helped me immensely in following along with the assumed meanings of ideas and the narrative of the discussions related on the podcast. The professor does a yeomans job of pointing out the complexities of Constitutional Law and our inherited body politics. It is a good feeling to know that my shallow understanding of media announcements of Supreme Court decisions can now be analyzed by me with more nuance and background related to the US Constitution. I also leave with a more robust appreciation for the reasons for our current divided and polarized political realities.
Date published: 2022-07-25
Rated 5 out of
5
by
CVEn from
Great historical look at the Constituion
I enjoyed the lectures, the review of historical decisions to the current information of law.
Date published: 2022-05-11
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Milt2 from
Constitutional Law, by Eric Berger, JD
This was an amazing course by Eric Berger. Great information presented in an outstanding manner. Congrations to Dr. Berger for the super presentation.
Date published: 2021-11-07
Rated 2 out of
5
by
sshomekid from
Didn't care for it!
I bought this about a month ago, tried to listen to the instructor, and see what their ideal of "Constitutional Law" had in store for me. It was much less than I expected.
Date published: 2021-09-09
Overview
About
Eric Berger is the Earl Dunlap Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law. His scholarship focuses on constitutional law, including judicial decision-making in constitutional cases. He received his JD from Columbia Law School and then clerked for the Honorable Merrick B. Garland on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He went on to practice with Jenner & Block, where he worked on litigation, including in the US Supreme Court. He has been voted Professor of the Year by law students at Nebraska six times.
Trailer
01: Origins and Functions of the Constitution
While the U.S. Constitution left many important issues unresolved, it was clearly designed to serve several primary purposes (regardless of disagreements over how it serves those purposes). Travel back to the 18th century and investigate the origins of the founding document of the American experiment—a story of crisis, rebellion, and compromise.
33 min
02: The Marshall Court and the Constitution
At the core of most issues in constitutional law is one question: Who decides? So why is it that the U.S. Supreme Court became the ultimate arbiter of constitutional questions? Explore this question by examining a pair of Chief Justice John Marshall’s famous opinions—Marbury v. Madison and McCulloch v. Maryland.
32 min
03: The Scope of the Executive Power
Using the 1952 opinion of Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company v. Sawyer, probe the slippery issue of how much power the U.S. president wields under the Constitution. One nuanced perspective comes from Justice Robert H. Jackson and his theory of executive power that views presidential power primarily through the lens of Congressional action.
29 min
04: Congress and the New Deal Commerce Clause
Learn how Congress’s power—as we understand it today—was shaped significantly by constitutional transformations that occurred during the 1930s. See how the Court ultimately vindicated robust Congressional powers under the Commerce Clause, and how President Franklin D. Roosevelt packed the courts with judges sympathetic to his transformative New Deal policies.
33 min
05: Congress and the Commerce Clause Today
Turn now to the ways the Commerce Clause has been interpreted in the decades since the New Deal era. Discover how the Court expanded Congress’s power still further in Wickard v. Filburn, and how the Court revisited the Commerce Clause in cases addressing a variety of pressing social issues, including racial segregation and affordable health care.
31 min
06: Individual Liberty: Contracts and Privacy
According to Professor Berger, individual liberty is one of the most doctrinally and culturally controversial topics in constitutional law. Find out how crucial a role the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause has played when it comes to individual rights with a look at famous cases, including Lochner v. New York and West Coast Hotel v. Parrish.
32 min
07: Liberty Disputed: Abortion and Gay Rights
Court decisions on some of America’s most controversial issues have relied on substantive due process. Take a closer look at how the Court confronted two of these issues: abortion (in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey) and LGBT rights (in Lawrence v. Texas and Obergefell v. Hodges).
33 min
08: Equal Protection and Civil Rights
Explore the history of the Court’s civil rights decisions—including Korematsu v. United States and Brown v. Board of Education—as a way to better understand the complex relationship between law and culture. Just how did changed attitudes about race help shape seismic changes in constitutional law?
33 min
09: The Affirmative Action Conundrum
Here, Professor Berger walks you through the constitutionality of affirmative action, in which public institutions give preferences on the basis of race. Key to this insightful lecture is a look at strict scrutiny, in which the Court reviews policies extremely carefully—and ostensibly without giving the government the benefit of the doubt.
33 min
10: Sex Discrimination and Women’s Rights
Of all the constitutions in the West, the U.S. Constitution is the only one without a provision that explicitly declares equal rights for the sexes under the law. From Minor v. Happersett in 1875 to United States v. Virginia in 1996, discover how the courts have ruled on sex-based classifications.
33 min
11: The Nature of the Judicial Power
Sometimes, the courts don’t decide important issues before them. In this lecture, take a closer look at why courts quite often choose not to decide a particular case on its merits. Topics here include justiciability doctrines (court-made decisions under which courts impose limitations on their power), sovereign immunity, and official immunity.
33 min
12: The Politics of Constitutional Law
While judges are not (as some people assume) politicians in robes, they are certainly not immune from political influences. Explore the role of politics in constitutional law through the high-stakes confirmation battles over judicial nominees (including the battle over the seat of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia).
35 min
