Wednesdays or Fridays 9:00 – 11:30 a.m.
September 29 - November 17, 2004
Rockefeller, Class of 1930 Room
The intent of this course is to develop an appreciation of some of the nuances of our Bill of Rights and to understand how the Supreme Court has used this instrument to resolve competing interests of individual liberties and governmental power. In order to protect the former and restrain the latter, our revered document, the first bill or rights in the history of the world, was crafted
The idea of "natural," "self evident," "inalienable" rights implied equality in a way few people explicitly understood at the time of drafting and many people hotly debate today, 200 years later. It is these fundamental American values expressing deep convictions found in the vision of individual liberty, thorny and important and continuing as they are, to which we in this course will give our attention and consideration.
During an intense eight weeks this autumn, following this summer's ILEAD lecture series which serves as an introduction to our subject, we will concern ourselves with questions involving free speech, separation of church and state, equal protection, liberty, marriage, privacy and due process.
An incredibly good book, a "page turner," The Center Holds, an analysis of the Rehnquist Court which has been specially re-printed for members of this course, will be required reading for late summer prior to the start of the class. Its author, Professor James Simon, New York Law School, will join us in discussion. Other invited guests will include Sir Antony Acland, Britain's former chief diplomat, adviser to Queen Elizabeth and former Ambassador to Washington. He will discuss our Anglo-Saxon legal heritage.
Each week easily manageable portions of Supreme Court decisions and dissents will be required reading ...leading to spirited and provocative discussion. Participants will enjoy assignments testing the respect and tolerance of small New England communities for constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties. An exciting, fun, challenging and intellectually rigorous adventure is promised ...with a final banquet as usual.
You may request either the "Wednesday" or "Friday" morning class with the understanding that a second class meeting will be held each week on Thursday afternoons to view a video or meet with a distinguished guest.
Class is limited to 40 members.
DAVID BISNO, retired ophthalmologist, after designing and presenting fifteen different ILEAD courses since 1993, decided to take his wife, Fay's advice and relax, autumn 2003. Having done that for ten days, David enrolled as an auditor in Laurence Tribe's course in Constitutional Law at Harvard. It was in Cambridge for three days each week last autumn that David joined Tribe's law students to prepare for this course.
