Spring 2009
Constitutional
History of the
Citizenship
Monday: 3-5 PM
Professor:
Elizabeth
Dale
Office
hours: Monday: 12:45-2:30 at
Levin College of Law
and by appointment
Required materials:
Larry Kramer, The People Themselves
Also required:
articles listed in syllabus and cases/statutes that are linked to below. Articles are not
linked to (for reasons of copyright), these articles
are all accessible online through the UF library system. (Note: all materials
listed below are required unless they appear under the heading
“additional readings.” On additional readings, see below.)
Assignments:
1. For law
students:
All law students registered for the
class are required to write one end of semester paper (roughly 10 pages) on a
topic to be assigned. Alternatively, law students may write a
15-20 page, law review like paper on a topic covered in this course. Law
students who wish to pursue the second option should contact me to discuss this
paper before Spring Break.
2. For
graduate students:
All students registered for the
graduate history seminar are required to write one 20-25 page seminar paper, on
a topic chosen with my approval (worth 80% of the grade) and are also required
to participate in discussion during the extra history hour course (20% of the
grade).
Focus of the course:
We are going to be looking at US
Constitutional History from roughly the founding era (actually a bit before)
through the 20th century. To make that manageable, we're going to look at
citizenship in particular.
We are going to be reading primary
sources (cases, statutes, the constitution, and some other primary documents)
and some secondary sources. The primary source materials will let us discuss
who has the power to define citizenship, the secondary materials will let us
consider the different approaches of legal history (theory and methods, so to
speak). My expectation is that we will generally read 1-3 article length things
a week (but see pt 3, below), though I am going to assign two books. We will
start the semester with one and finish the semester with the other. I've listed
the books and provided information about them below, I'll need you to actually
buy the books yourselves.
The course is arranged in a rough
chronological order, but at times (particularly in the second half of the
semester) we will be looking at themes that develop over time. Each week I have
identified required readings (typically a key decision and 1-2 related
articles). The readings listed
directly under the date are required. Additional readings are optional, and
intended for those who wish to pursue a specific topic for research.
Schedule:
Week 1:
Jan. 12: Introduction to the course
Read Smith, Chapter
1. You should also skim
Week 2: Jan 23 (note that Monday, Jan. 19 is a
school holiday and the law school has rescheduled the course for Friday, Jan.
23)
The concept of
citizenship in Early America
Smith, Chapters 2-3
Additional readings:
Nancy Isenberg, Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum
Week 3: Jan 26: Defining citizenship in Early America:
Martin v. Masssachusetts
(1805)
Linda Kerber, The Paradox
of Women’s Citizenship in the Early Republic, American Historical Review, vol, 97
(1992): 349
If you have time,
skim Smith, chapter 4-5
Additional readings:
Calvin’s Case
(1608)
Historic
Pennsylvania Constitutions,
Week 4: Feb 2: Native Americans, sovereignty and
citizenship in Early America
Cherokee
Nation v. Georgia (1831)
Worcester v. Georgia
(1832)
Stephen G. Bragaw, Thomas
Jefferson and the American Indian Nations: Native American Sovereignty and the
Marshall Court Journal of Supreme Court
History vol. 31 (2006): 155
If you have time,
skim Smith, chapter 7.
Additional readings:
Indian Citizenship
Act of 1924
Kevin Bruyneel, Challenging
American Boundaries: Indigenous People and the “Gift” of
Week 5: Feb 9: African Americans, rights and citizenship
in the Antebellum Era
Roberts
v. City of Boston (1850)
Hilary J.
Moss, The Tarring and Feathering of Thomas Paul
Smith: Common Schools, Revolutionary Memory and the Crisis of Black Citizenship
in Antebellum
Smith,
Chapter 9
Additional
readings:
Scott v.
David
Gellman, Race, the Public Sphere, and
Abolition in Late Eighteenth-Century
Michael
Pierson, “Slavery Cannot be Covered Up with
Broadcloth or a Bandanna,” Journal
of the Early Republic 25 (2005): 383-415 (1850s)
Week 6: Feb 16: Citizenship and rights after the
Civil War, Part I
Elk v. Wilkins (1884)
Robert J. Kaczorowski,
To Begin the Nation Anew: Congress,
Citizenship and Civil Rights After the Civil War American Historical Review vol. 92
(1987): 45
Additional readings:
James W. Fox, Jr., Exploring the History, Evolution, and Future
of the Fourteenth Amendment: Democratic Citizenship and Congressional
Reconstruction, 13
David R. Quigley, The Proud Name of “Citizen” Has
Sunk American Nineteenth Century
History (
Week 7: Feb 23: Citizenship and rights after the
Civil War, Part II
Plessy v. Ferguson
(1896)
United States v. Wong
Kim Ark (1898)
Smith, Chapter 10
Additional
Mary Frances Berry, Military Necessity and Civil Rights Policy:
Black Citizenship and the Constitution, 1861-1868 (1977)
Laura Edwards, Status without Rights: African Americans and
the Tangled History of Law and Governance in the Nineteenth-Century US South
American Historical Review vol. 112 (2007): 365
Karin Zipg, Reconstructing
the Free Woman: African American Women, Apprenticeship and Custody Rights
During Reconstruction Journal of Women’s History 12
(2000): 8
Week 8:
March 2: Workers and Citizenship
Holden v. Hardy
(1898)
Lochner v. New York, 198
Smith,
chapter 11.
Also skim Smith, chapter 12
Additional readings:
Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in
Gerald Berk, “Corporate Liberalism Reconsidered: A Review
Essay,” Journal of Policy Studies
3 (1991): 84
Barbara Welke, Recasting
American
William Wiecek, The Lost World of
Classical Liberal Thought, 1886-1937
James R. Barrett and
David Roediger, Inbetween Peoples: Race, Nationality and the “New Immigrant” Working
Class Journal of American Ethnic History 16 (1997): 3.
Week 9: March 9: Spring break, no classes
Week 10: March 16: Women as citizens?
Minor
v. Happersett (1874)
Muller v. Oregon (1908)
Adam Winkler, A Revolution Too Soon: Woman Suffragists and
the “Living Constitution,” 76
NYU L. Rev. 1456 (2001).
Reva B. Siegel, She the People: The Nineteenth Amendment,
Sex Equality, Federalism and the Family 115 Harv. L. Rev. 947 (2002).
Additional readings:
Linda Kerber, No
Constitutional Right to be Ladies? (1998)
Gretchen Ritter, Jury Service and Women’s Citizenship Before and After the Nineteenth Amendment Law and History Review 20 (2002): 479
Week 11: March 23: Rights and citizenship
Palko v. Connecticut
(1937)
United
States v. Carolene Products, 304 US 144 (1938)
Kenneth W. Mack,
“Rethinking Civil Rights Lawyering and Politics
in the Era Before Brown,”
Yale L. J. 115 (2005): 256
Additional readings:
Murdock v.
Duncan v.
Griswold v.
Risa Goluboff,
The Lost Promise of Civil Rights (2007)
Week 12: March 30: Citizenship, education and rights
Minersville School
District v. Gobitis (1940)
Brown v. Board of Education
(1954)
Jack Balkin, Plessy, Brown and Grutter: A Play in Three
Acts 26 Cardozo Law Review
1689 (2005).
Additional readings:
Plyler v. Doe, 457
Week 13: April 6: Citizenship and war
Ex Parte Merryman
(1861)
Abrams v. United States
(1919)
Korematsu
v. United States (1944)
Michael Traynor, Citizenship
in a Time of Repression 35 Stetson
Law Review 775 (2006)
Additional readings:
Suzanne, Mettler, The Creation of the
G.I. Bill of Rights of 1944: Melding Social and Participatory Citizenship
Ideals Journal of Policy History vol.
17 (2005): 345
Lucy E. Salyer, Baptism by
Fire: Race, Military Service and
Christopher Capozzola, The Only Badge Needed is
Your Patriotic Fervor: Vigilance, Coercion and the Law in World War I
Week 14: April 13: Identity and citizenship, Part II
Linda Kerber, The Meaning of
Citizenship, Journal of American
History vol. 84 (1997): 833
Kimberle Crenshaw, Race, Reform and Retrenchment Harvard Law Review vol. 101 (1988):
1331.
Week 15: April 20: Last class
Kramer, The People Themselves
Week 16: papers due