Prerequisite: For JD students, this course is open to those who have taken, or are concurrently taking, Constitutional Law: Separation of Powers, Federalism, and the Fourteenth Amendment, or have completed the required 1L Constitutional Law offering, as this requires some knowledge of substantive constitutional law. For LLM students, instructor permission is required to enroll in this course.

Exam type: Any Day Take-Home

This course studies the role of the federal courts in the federal system and their relationship to the state courts. Topics include the power of Congress to regulate the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts; federal question jurisdiction; Supreme Court review of state court judgments; federal common law; sovereign and official immunity doctrines; abstention and related limitations on federal courts jurisdiction; and federal habeas corpus.