SOCS655
Philosophy of Law

Lori Gruen

06/21/2004 - 06/25/2004
Monday-Friday 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM

Some readings are available on electronic reserve; logging in requires your Wesleyan e-mail user ID and password. For more information about your Wesleyan e-mail/e-portfolio account, click here.

Readings are also available here.

June 21
Morning
Theories of Law

Required Reading:
“On Liberty” by  John Stuart Mill
“The Doctrine of Liberty in Its Application to Morals” by James Fitzjames Stephen
“Morals and the Criminal Law” by Patrick Devlin

Recommended Reading:
“Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals” by H.L.A. Hart
“Positivism and Fidelity to Law” by Lon L. Fuller

PowerPoint Presentation
Click here to download

June 21
Afternoon
Privacy

Required Reading:
“Moral Argument and Liberal Toleration:  Abortion and Homosexuality” by Michael Sandel
• Griswald in Sex, Morality & Law (Sex)

Background Cases:
Griswald v. Connecticut 381 US 479 (1965)
Meyers v. Nebraska 262 US 390 (1923)
Pierce v. Society of Sisters 268 US 510 (1925)
Skinner v. Oklahoma 316 US 535 (1944)
NAACP v. Alabama 357 US 449 (1958)
Poe v. Ullman 367 US 497 (1961)
Snyder v Massachusetts 291 US 97 (1934)

Recommended Reading:
“Privacy and Autonomy” by Hyman Gross
“The Theatrical Model and Concern for Privacy” by Alan Ryan
“The Right to Privacy”

June 22

Abortion

Required Reading:
• Roe in Sex
• Casey in Sex
• Judith Jarvis Thomson in Sex
• Warren in Sex
• Marquis in Sex

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2003/11/19/excerpts_the_dissenting_views/
These are the majority and dissenting opinions in Goodridge v. Department of Pub. Health, the Massachusetts case that legalized gay marriage in that state, as excerpted by the Boston Glob.

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IF03H01
This is a page put up by a conservative group called the Family Research Council, in which the organization lays out its arguments against gay marriage. It's a quick read, and gets at a lot of the main points of some conservative critiques.

http://www.andrewsullivan.com/homosexuality.php?artnum=19890828
This is an article written by Andrew Sullivan, one of the leading proponents of gay marriage, in which he presents a "conservative case" for gay marriage, based on the idea that marriage would be a "stabilizing" force for gay couples.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2085127


Assignment:

Write no more than two page commentary on Roe v. Wade 

Background Cases:
Roe v. Wade 410 US 113 (1973)
Palko v. Connecticut 302 US 319 (1937)
Katz v United States 389 US 347 (1967)
Terry v. Ohio 392 US 1 (1968)
Eisenstadt  v. Baird 405 US 438 (1972)
Planned Parenthood v. Casey 112 S. Ct. 2791 (1992)
Planned Parenthood of Central Mo. v. Danforth 428 US 52 (1976)
Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health 462 US 416 (1983)
Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians 476 US 747 (1986)
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services 492 US 490 (1989)
Rochin v. California 342 US 165 (1952)
Employment Division, Dept. of Human Resources of Ore. v Smith
494 US 872 (1990)

Recommended Reading:
Sherwin, Callahan in Sex and Online

PowerPoint Presentation
Abortion:  click here to download 

June 23 Queer Sex

Required Reading:
• Bower in Sex
• Goldstein in Sex
• Leiser in Sex
• Mohr in Sex
Lawrence v. Texas 539 U. S. ____ (2003)  PDF file
• Romer in Sex
• Samar in Sex
A Conservative Defense of Romer v. Evans     Dale Carpenter
• Baehr Online [replace with current MA cases]

Background Cases:
Bowers v. Hardwick 478 US 186 (1986)
Carey v. Population Services International  431 US 678 (1977)
Prince v. Massachusetts 321 US 158 (1944)
Moore v. East Cleveland 431 US 494 (1977)
Stanley v. Georgia 394 US 557 (1969)
Olmstead v. United States 277 US 438 (1928)
Roberts v. United States Jaycees 468 US 609 (1984)
Wisconsin v. Yoder 406 US 205 (1972)
Palmore v. Sidoti 466 US 429 (1984)
O’Connor v. Donaldson 422 US 563 (1975)
Romer
v. Evans 116 S.Ct. 1620 (1996)
Plessy v. Ferguson 163 US 537 (1896)
Hunter v. Erickson 393 US 385 (1969)
Washington v. Seattle School District (1982)
Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston 515 US 557 (1995)
United States Railroad Retirement Bd. v. Fritz 449 US 166 (1980)
Shelley v. Kraemer 334 US 1 (1948)
Department of Agriculture v. Moreno 413 US 528 (1973)
Dandridge v. Williams 397 US 471 (1970)
Davis v. Beason 133 US 333 (1890)
Baehr v. Lewin (now Miike) 74 Haw. 530 (1993)

Loving v. Virginia 388 US 1 (1967)
Zablocki v. Redhail 434 US 374 (1978)
Fronterio v. Richardson 411 US 677 (1973)

PowerPoint Presentation: click here to download

June 24 Pornography

Required Reading:
Paris Adult Theatre v. Slaton
• Kristol
• Hartley
• Dworkin all in Sex
American Booksellers Assn., Inc. v. Hudnut,
•MacKinnon
• Hunter & Law in Sex
• Gruen from A Companion to Applied Ethics

Background Cases:
Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton 413 US 49 (1973)
Miller v. California 413 US 15 (1973)
Beard v. Alexandria 341 US 622 (1951)
Roth v. United States 354 US 476 (1957)
Jacobellis v. Ohio 378 US 184 (1964)
Redrup v. New York 386 US 767 (1967)
Ginsberg v New York 390 US 629 (1968)
American Booksellers Assn. v. Hudnut  771 F. 2nd 323 (1985)

Bradenburg v. Ohio 395 US 444 (1969)
Police Department v. Mosley 408 US 92 (1972)
Jenkins v. Georgia 418 US 153 (1974)
Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. 418 US 323 (1974)
FCC v Pacifica 438 US 726 (1978)
New York Times v Sullivan 376 US 254 (1964)

Recommended Reading:
American Booksellers Assn., Inc. v. Hudnut,
•MacKinnon
• Hunter & Law in Sex
“Pornography and Speech Acts” by Susan Dwyer
“Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts”  by Rae Langton

PowerPoint Presentation
On pornography:  click here to download the PowerPoint presentation
On sexual harassment: click here to download the PowerPoint presentation

 

June 25

Moot Court

Moot Court Case Presentations 

Web links and resources useful for this course:

http://library.thinkquest.org/11572/ A Roadmap to the United States Constitution
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/courses/
law/lawlinks.htm#primary 
Primary Sources of U.S. Law