Virtual Law School Class Visit: Constitutional Law 2, Prof. Frank Valdes

This online event is intended for Prospective or Admitted students for the University of Miami School of Law. As space is limited, there is a limit of 5 students per class. Students are limited to 1 request per class offering.

This course surveys the most litigated clauses of the most litigated provisions of the U.S. Constitution: Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment, as judicially interpreted since the Slaughterhouse Cases of 1873. That first-ever, 5-4 interpretation of the still-fresh post-Civil War text effectively nullified the amendment’s Privileges or Immunities Clause. Since then, 150-plus years of continual judicial interpretation has produced overlapping doctrines and multi-tiered tests under the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause that, today, define the “fundamental rights” of equality and liberty in everyday life. Using problems, worksheets, exercises, and other study aids that complement the casebook, the course examines the (frequently split) opinions behind the doctrines and tests, with an emphasis on doctrinal synthesis, critical thinking, and legal analysis. To do so, the course opens with a textual-structural-historical overview of the Constitution that builds on the Constitutional I course, equipping students to examine specific opinions within the larger constitutional system or context that allows for them in the first place. Reflecting how this subject is tested in bar examinations nationwide, the course exposes students to every mode of assessment that graduates are likely to encounter in those licensing settings (e.g., from traditional and short-answer essays to multiple-choice questions).

Francisco Valdes, Professor of Law, earned a B.A. in 1978 from the University of California at Berkeley, a J.D. with honors in 1984 from the University of Florida College of Law, and a J.S.M. in 1991 and a J.S.D. in 1994 from Stanford Law School. Between law school and graduate work, he practiced as a civil commercial litigator with Miami and San Francisco law firms, and taught as an adjunct professor at Golden Gate Law School. In 1991, while working on his J.S.D. dissertation for Stanford, he joined the faculty at California Western School of Law in San Diego, receiving tenure in 1994 before joining the University of Miami (UM) faculty in 1996. At UM, he co-founded the law school's Center for Hispanic & Caribbean Legal Studies and its Spain Study-Abroad Summer Program, serving as co-director of each. Since 2008, he also has served as founding Faculty Advisor to the UM Race & Social Justice Law Review. In 2010, Dr. Valdes was designated a Dean's Distinguished Scholar, and appointed founding Director of the UM Junior Faculty Development program to ensure the well-rounded progress of newer faculty.

NOTE: The University of Miami School of Law strives to host inclusive events which are accessible for all attendees to engage and participate fully. Please indicate any accommodations you require to participate in our event and we will make all reasonable efforts to satisfy your accommodation requests to the best of our ability. Closed captioning requests require 72 hours (3 days) of notice prior to the scheduled event.

Host or Publisher Office of Admissions, Univ. of Miami School of Law