The Equal Protection Clause: From Reconstruction to the Present

Equal Protection Clause: Evolution and Significance

• Course Context and Instructor's Personal Update: The instructor provides a personal anecdote about balancing work and family responsibilities to emphasize the challenges of time management for students, acknowledging that many also have work and family commitments.

  • The instructor works in-office for their school district, while their wife teaches fifth grade remotely from home.

  • They manage a five-year-old starting kindergarten and a two-year-old with a babysitter.

  • Most course recordings are done at night due to daytime work and family attentiveness.

• Week Four Focus: The Equal Protection Clause

  • This week focuses on the Equal Protection Clause, the last of the 14th Amendment clauses to be studied in detail.

  • The primary objective is to explore its evolution across a broad spectrum of American history, bringing the course closer to the present day than any other unit.

  • Course Thematic Progression: The course sequentially covers:

    1. 14th Amendment (current focus)

    2. Civil Rights Law / Legal History of the Civil Rights Movement

    3. Rise of Antitrust and Labor Law

    4. Antitrust and Labor Law in the New Deal

    5. Civil Liberties and Wartime

  • The Equal Protection Clause unit will cover the broadest period of American history within a single thematic week.

  • Critical Importance: The instructor considers the Equal Protection Clause potentially