The Constitution Today

Monday, September 12, 2016, 6:30 - 7:30pm
Monday, September 19, 2016, 6:30 - 7:30pm
Monday, September 26, 2016, 6:30 - 7:30pm
Monday, October 10, 2016, 6:30 - 7:30pm
Monday, October 17, 2016, 6:30 - 7:30pm
Monday, October 24, 2016, 6:30 - 7:30pm
Monday, October 31, 2016, 6:30 - 7:30pm
Monday, November 14, 2016, 6:30 - 7:30pm
Monday, November 21, 2016, 6:30 - 7:30pm
Monday, November 28, 2016, 6:30 - 7:30pm

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The Constitution Today

This fall The Cooper Union Department of Public Programs offers a free, public ten-session course on the Constitution taught by Prof. Akhil Reed Amar of Yale Law School on Monday evenings, beginning Sept. 12 and ending Nov. 28. (There will be no class on Oct. 3 or Nov. 7.) Registration is free but required.

Each course will be recorded and released as a video on the internet approximately two weeks later. See below class list for a link to each video as it becomes available.

Akhil Reed AmarThe course will be based on Prof. Amar's forthcoming book, The Constitution Today: Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era (Basic Books). In it Prof. Amar, a constitutional scholar, considers the biggest and most bitterly contested debates of the last two decades and provides a passionate handbook for thinking constitutionally about today’s headlines. Class subjects are as follows:

 

9/12 -- The Presidency: A Return to Dynasty?

9/19 -- The Vice Presidency: Nothing but Maybe Everything

9/26 -- The Congress: How to Fix a Broken Branch

10/3 -- No class

10/10 -- The Judiciary: Who Judges the Judges?

10/17 -- Criminal Procedure: From O.J. to DNA

10/24 -- Citizens Dis-united: Race, Guns, Gays, and More

10/31 -- Constitutional Anniversaries: Remembering to Remember

11/7 -- No class

11/14 -- Bill Clinton's Drama: His Partisan Impeachment

11/21 -- George W. Bush's Drama: His Un-popular Election

11/28 -- Barack Obama's Drama: His Signature Statute

In each class Prof. Amar goes through the particular constitutional questions at stake while outlining his abiding views regarding the Constitution’s letter, its spirit, and the direction constitutional law must go. Prof. Amar offers an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand America’s Constitution and its relevance today...

Akhil Reed Amar is the Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University. He is the author of several books, including America’s Unwritten Constitution, and the winner of awards from both the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society....

Please register here....

Photo of Prof. Amar by Howard Shapiro.

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  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.