Mel Durchslag, Thursdays 10 am-12 noon
ZOOM: January 14, 21, 28, February 4, 11, 18
Registrants will receive an e-mail containing information about joining the course sessions.
Please register each person in the household individually.
This course, which will consist of six sessions, will explore how all three branches of our federal government, and even the states, have responded to times of crisis, mostly war or the threat of war. Except for the first and last sessions, the course will be organized more or less chronologically, starting with the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798, and extending to the exercise of presidential power during the “war on terrorism”. Between those events, we will look at Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War, assaults on free speech during and immediately after World War I, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the McCarthy era. The last session will be devoted to a discussion of what might be described as the politization of the federal judiciary generally and the Supreme Court particularly, the crisis being a crisis of confidence. While we look at each branch of the federal government, because this is essentially a course in constitutional law, the focus, where appropriate, will be on the response of the United States Supreme Court both to legislative restrictions on free speech and the exercise of presidential power as “Commander in Chief”.
ILR At SaddleBrooke