Political philosophy and the constitution/supreme court:
Project description:
Supreme Court and the Constitution
INSTRUCTIONS: This assignment is to be typed, double-spaced. If you complete your paper early you may bring it to my office during office hours of finals week or give it to a staff member in the Taylor Hall mail room (Taylor 122) between 8-5 finals week. They will put it in my mail box. No late papers will be read. The paper requires no research; in fact research would be counterproductive. Keep a copy of your paper in the event your original is misplaced.
PROBLEMS:
Part I. Describe how the Due Process clause “Liberty” clause created a problem for Hamiltons vision of the court as an institution whose legitimacy is based upon judgment. That is, apply Hamiltons argument justifying judicial independence and judicial review (i. e. “the court has neither sword nor purse it can only exercise judgment”) to the “Lochner era” and explain whether the Supreme Court can hew Hamilton’s vision when deciding cases like Lochner.
Part II. Discuss whether a state rule of judicial conduct that prohibits candidates for elected judicial positions from personally soliciting campaign funds from anyone violates the First Amendment.
Part III. In light of Plessy and Brown, discuss whether a public (state) university may use race as part of its competitive, admissions criteria. Assume about 40% of all applicants are admitted. In addition to grades and standardized test scores, letters of recommendation and a host of “soft variables” the university also uses race to try to create a “holistic admissions program” to try to obtain the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body.
Specifically the University hopes to obtain “critical mass” of minority students because university education is more the shaping of lives than the filling of heads with facts. The university argues that diversity is essential is this classic objective of the a liberal arts education.
Is the admissions program consistent with equal protection requirements after Brown?