CONSTITUTIONAL LITIGATION (3 credits): This course
studies the statutory and constitutional provisions that authorize civil
rights suites aimed at redressing violations of federal constitutional
rights. Specific topics include the nature of rights that can be enforced
through civil rights litigation; the type of governmental conduct that
gives rise to liability under the civil rights statutes; the responsibility
of governmental units for the acts of their employees; the availability
of damages and injunctions; the defenses and immunities available to
individual and governmental defendants, including individual immunity
and sovereign immunity; the doctrines that govern the relationship between
state and federal courts in civil rights actions, including exhaustion
of state remedies, res judicata and collateral estoppel and the abstention
doctrines; and the availability of relief against private persons. Prerequisites:
Constitutional Law I and II
