Master of Laws (LLM) U.S. Constitutional Law Syllabus

U.S. Constitutional Law syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for U.S. Constitutional Law in Master of Laws (LLM), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Judicial Power and Justiciability

   4 topics

   • Article III Case or Controversy Requirement
     • Standing: injury, causation, redressability
     • Ripeness and mootness
     • Political question doctrine
   • Original and Appellate Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court
   • Eleventh Amendment and State Sovereign Immunity
   • Abstention and Adequate and Independent State Grounds
2. 2

   Federal Legislative and Executive Powers

   4 topics

   • The Commerce Clause
     • Channels, instrumentalities, and substantial effects
     • Aggregation principle and its limits
     • Dormant Commerce Clause and discrimination against interstate commerce
   • Taxing and Spending Powers and Conditional Funding
   • Executive Authority
     • Appointment and removal powers
     • Executive privilege and immunity
     • War powers and foreign affairs
   • Treaty Power and Executive Agreements
3. 3

   Individual Rights and Liberties

   4 topics

   • State Action Doctrine
     • Public function and entanglement tests
     • Incorporation of the Bill of Rights against the states
   • Due Process
     • Procedural due process and the Mathews balancing test
     • Substantive due process and fundamental rights
   • Equal Protection
     • Strict, intermediate, and rational basis scrutiny
     • Suspect and quasi-suspect classifications
     • Affirmative action and facially neutral laws
   • Takings Clause and Eminent Domain
4. 4

   First Amendment: Speech, Press, and Religion

   4 topics

   • Freedom of Speech
     • Content-based vs. content-neutral regulation
     • Unprotected categories: incitement, true threats, obscenity
     • Time, place, and manner restrictions and public forums
     • Commercial and symbolic speech
   • Freedom of the Press and Prior Restraint
   • Religion Clauses
     • Establishment Clause tests and standards
     • Free exercise and neutral laws of general applicability
   • Freedom of Association and Assembly

U.S. Constitutional Law flashcards for Master of Laws (LLM)

22 of 52 cards from the U.S. Constitutional Law deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. Under Article III, what four elements must a plaintiff satisfy to establish standing?

   (1) Injury in fact (concrete, particularized, actual or imminent), (2) Causation (injury traceable to defendant's conduct), (3) Redressability (a favorable decision will likely remedy the injury), and (4) the injury falls within the zone of interests; the first three are the constitutional minimum.

2. What is the constitutional basis and meaning of the 'case or controversy' requirement?

   Article III, Section 2 limits federal judicial power to actual 'cases' and 'controversies,' barring advisory opinions and requiring genuine adverse parties with a live, concrete dispute.

3. Distinguish the ripeness and mootness doctrines under Article III.

   Ripeness bars suits brought too early (injury speculative/not yet occurred); mootness bars suits brought too late (live controversy has ended). Both ensure a live dispute throughout litigation.

4. Name the recognized exceptions to the mootness doctrine.

   (1) Wrongs capable of repetition yet evading review, (2) voluntary cessation by defendant (who could resume), (3) class actions where the named plaintiff's claim is moot but the class claim survives, and (4) collateral consequences.

5. What is the political question doctrine and what are its key Baker v. Carr factors?

   It bars adjudication of issues constitutionally committed to another branch or lacking judicially manageable standards. Baker factors include textual commitment to a coordinate branch, lack of manageable standards, need for a policy determination, and potential for multibranch embarrassment.

6. When may a litigant assert third-party (jus tertii) standing?

   When the litigant suffers its own injury, has a close relationship with the third party, and there is some hindrance to the third party asserting their own rights (e.g., a doctor asserting a patient's rights).

7. Describe the scope of the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction.

   Under Article III, Section 2, the Court has original jurisdiction over cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and cases in which a State is a party. Congress may make this concurrent with lower courts except for suits between two States, which are exclusive.

8. What did Marbury v. Madison establish about the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction?

   Congress cannot enlarge the Court's original jurisdiction beyond what Article III specifies; the Court struck down a statute granting it original mandamus power, establishing judicial review in the process.

9. What is the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction and the Exceptions Clause?

   The Court hears appeals 'with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make' (Art. III, Sec. 2). Congress controls the appellate docket, today largely through discretionary certiorari.

10. What is the 'Rule of Four' governing Supreme Court review?

    The Court grants a writ of certiorari (agrees to hear a case) when at least four of the nine Justices vote to do so.

11. What does the Eleventh Amendment provide regarding suits against states?

    It bars federal courts from hearing suits against a state by citizens of another state or of a foreign state; the Supreme Court has extended sovereign immunity to bar suits against a state by its own citizens (Hans v. Louisiana).

12. List the principal exceptions allowing suit against a state despite sovereign immunity.

    (1) State consent/waiver, (2) Congressional abrogation under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment (with clear statement), (3) Ex parte Young suits for prospective injunctive relief against state officers, and (4) suits by the federal government or another state.

13. Explain the Ex parte Young doctrine.

    A plaintiff may sue a state officer in their official capacity for prospective injunctive or declaratory relief to stop an ongoing violation of federal law; the suit is treated as against the officer, not the immune state, so retroactive damages from the treasury are barred.

14. What is the 'adequate and independent state grounds' doctrine?

    The Supreme Court will not review a state court judgment if it rests on a state-law ground that is both adequate (sufficient to support the result) and independent of federal law, because any federal ruling would be advisory.

15. What is Pullman abstention?

    A federal court abstains and stays its hand when an unsettled question of state law could be resolved by state courts in a way that avoids or moots a federal constitutional question.

16. What is Younger abstention?

    Federal courts must abstain from enjoining ongoing state criminal proceedings (and certain civil/administrative proceedings) absent extraordinary circumstances such as bad faith, harassment, or a patently unconstitutional statute, out of respect for comity and federalism.

17. State the modern test for whether an activity falls within Congress's Commerce Clause power.

    Congress may regulate (1) the channels of interstate commerce, (2) the instrumentalities of interstate commerce and persons/things in interstate commerce, and (3) activities that substantially affect interstate commerce.

18. How does the aggregation principle apply to the Commerce Clause (Wickard v. Filburn)?

    For economic/commercial activity, Congress may regulate even trivial individual conduct if the activity, taken in the aggregate across all actors, substantially affects interstate commerce.

19. What limit on the Commerce Clause did United States v. Lopez and Morrison establish?

    Congress cannot regulate noneconomic, intrastate activity (e.g., gun possession near schools, gender-motivated violence) merely because of attenuated effects; the regulated activity must itself be economic to be aggregated.

20. What is the anti-commandeering principle (New York v. United States; Printz v. United States)?

    Congress cannot compel states to enact or enforce a federal regulatory program or commandeer state legislatures or executive officers to administer federal law.

21. What is the dormant (negative) Commerce Clause?

    The Commerce Clause implicitly restricts states from enacting legislation that discriminates against or unduly burdens interstate commerce, even absent federal action.

22. State the two-tier test under the dormant Commerce Clause.

    If a state law discriminates against interstate commerce (facially, in purpose, or effect), it is virtually per se invalid unless it serves a legitimate local purpose with no nondiscriminatory alternative. If it is nondiscriminatory but burdens commerce, it is upheld unless the burden is clearly excessive relative to local benefits (Pike balancing).

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