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Prof. Kim McLaurin, Prof. Robert H. Smith,
6 credits day; 6 credits evening.
The goals of this Project and course are expansive: ―to uplift constitutional understanding,
advance democratic values, and promote young people‘s engagement in politics and
government.‖ The Marshall-Brennan Project is named in honor of the late Justices Thurgood
Marshall and William J. Brennan, Jr., and is currently offered in less than a dozen law schools in
the United States. Students accepted into the course will be known as the Marshall-Brennan
Fellows at Suffolk Law School. The Rappaport Center will administer the program. This course
will offer law students a rare opportunity to study constitutional law and to teach it at the same
time to area high school students. The academic component of this course consists of a weekly
seminar for an academic year. Fellows will learn the intricacies of Constitutional Law as it
applies to high school students. Topics will include: Free Speech for Students, Separation of
Church and School, Search and Seizure in School, Equal Protection against Race Discrimination,
and Due Process in School. The weekly seminar sessions will also provide an opportunity for
Marshall-Brennan fellows to discuss their high school classes and for us to explore together
pedagogical problems in teaching constitutional law. There will be a two-day session for the
Fellows at the beginning of the law school year to provide an orientation to the issues involved in
teaching law in high school. Marshall-Brennan Fellows will teach in pairs in local high schools,
in classes of no more than twenty. Each pair of Fellows will be expected to teach two one-hour
classes per week, either during the high school day or after school. Fellows will also work with
their high school students as they prepare for a national moot court competition. In additional to
six course credits, Fellows may also be eligible for pro bono credit. This is a five credit course
with a single grade at the end of the academic year. Law students will be evaluated based on
written papers at the end of each semester and the observations of the field supervisors and the
professors. Paper topics will be issues of constitutional law relevant to the course. Fellows will
be required to write reflective papers from time to time during the semester and to submit lesson
plans for the high school classes to the field supervisors and to professors Avery and McLaurin.
Due to time constraints, Fellows may not participate in any clinical program during the same
year they are enrolled in the Marshall-Brennan Project. Students may not enroll in Education
Law.
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law
May Fulfill Legal Writing Requirement
Constitutional Law