LAW 634 - Children and the Constitution Seminar

Course Type: Upper Writing Requirement
Credits: 2

Description: The United States Constitution prioritizes adults; it always has. There is no explicit reference to young people in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or the Fourteenth Amendment. Over the last sixty years, children have been judicially recognized as rights-bearers, however, the “adult” as the “rights-bearing default” is deeply ingrained in the United States’ popular imagination and its constitutional jurisprudence, limiting children’s rights in scope, substance, and theory. From young people’s rights to equal educational opportunities, a sustainable climate, and free speech-to their rights to association and protection from gun violence, this course will offer a robust engagement with whether, why, how, and when young people’s rights should matter.