Course Syllabus

 

O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs

Law and Public Affairs SPEA V184

 

Instructor: Trisha Bushey

Email address: tbushey@iu.edu

Phone: (812) 361-6482 (text only)

Class Meeting: Tuesday and Thursday, 5:30 pm to 6:45 pm

Office Hours: by appointment, either in person or by Zoom

Course Description: This course provides a basic understanding of the origins, process, and impact of law in the making and implementing public policy. Students learn who has power to make and implement laws, the different forms law takes, how to find and interpret law, and key principles of law that shape public affairs.

Learning Outcomes: By the end of the semester, students should be able to:

1. Explain how and why lawmaking powers differ among branches and levels of government;
2. Apply to real and hypothetical events, major rules or principles of law that affect how the government acts on public affairs issues;
3. Explain how civil disputes and criminal charges are resolved in America;
4. Explain at a basic level how administrative agencies make and implement law;
5. Identify one or more examples of how demographic differences have affected or may affect someone’s experience with American law;
6. Compare US and foreign approaches on one or more selected issues of law and policy;
7. Conduct basic online research to find relevant and valid law and related information;
8. Form persuasive oral and written arguments that incorporate legal and policy considerations;
9. Relate the major course concepts to events in the news or history or students’ own lives.

How much time should you be spending on this class: If this is a standard 3-credit semester length class, you are expected to spend an average of 6 or more hours outside of class per week on reading, studying, assignments, etc. If this is a 6- or 8-week 3-credit class, you are expected to spend at least 12 hours outside of class per week on these activities.

O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs

Student Honor Code

Introduction

The O’Neill School takes matters of honesty and integrity seriously. We expect O’Neill students will, at all times, maintain academic integrity and civil and professional standards of conduct.

Scope

O’Neill’s Student Honor Code applies to all courses and programs offered by O’Neill, and to all students who participate in O’Neill classes and programs, regardless of whether students are admitted to O’Neill. Students studying at O’Neill are expected to continue their commitment to ethical behavior in all their endeavors, including, but not limited to, coursework inside and outside of O’Neill, internships, community service, and overseas study.

O’Neill’s Student Honor Code incorporates IU’s Code of Student Right, Responsibilities, & Conduct and extends to matters of civility and professional conduct, including, expectations about class attendance, punctuality, participation in class, and decorum in class and at other school functions.

Academic Conduct Requirements: All students enrolled in O’Neill courses are subject to the academic misconduct provisions found in the IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, & Conduct.

Academic misconduct is defined as any activity that tends to undermine the academic integrity of the institution. The IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, & Conduct lists and defines many types of academic misconduct, including cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, interference, violation of course rules, and facilitating academic dishonesty.

Academic misconduct includes the use of any technology or assistance, including AI, that is not permitted by the instructor.

Civility and Professional Conduct Requirements

O’Neill requires that all students treat others with mutual respect and behave professionally in the classroom and during all academic and non-academic activities.

These civility and professional conduct requirements foster an appropriate atmosphere inside and outside the classroom:

• Students must act in accordance with the O’Neill School mission and values.
• Students must regularly attend and be fully prepared for class, including completing readings.
• Students must not behave in a way that interrupts or distracts from teaching or learning. For example, students must be punctual in their arrival to class and be present and attentive for the duration of the class. They must not sleep, do work for another class, or wander in and out of the classroom, pack up, or leave class early (unless an emergency exists).
• Students must abide by the course policy regarding use of electronic devices in the classroom, including a requirement that no electronics are allowed or that students are not permitted to use devices for non-class related purposes.
• Students must responsibly participate in class activities and during team meetings for course assignments.
• Students must attend scheduled meetings with faculty or staff, events for which they have RSVPed, interviews with prospective employers, and student organization meetings.
• Students must address faculty members, other students, and others appropriately and with respect, whether in person, in writing, or in electronic communications.
• Students must show tolerance and respect for others.
• Students must practice respect and responsible stewardship of the physical resources of the school, refraining from destroying or defacing school property, integrating practices of sustainability, and contributing to a clean and orderly physical environment in all buildings, classrooms, offices, and meeting spaces.
• Students must comply with the personal misconduct responsibilities within the IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, & Conduct.

Reporting

Students must abide by the O’Neill Student Honor Code themselves and hold their peers to the same standards. Students should report suspected instances of academic, civility, or professional misconduct to the instructor of the course. Students should report suspected instances of personal misconduct to the IU Office of Student Conduct.

 REQUIRED MATERIALS: 

 Available electronically

Introduction to Law, Seventh Edition                  

Beth Walston-Dunham

Publisher: Delmar Cengage Learning

ISBN-10: 9781305948648 

Course Requirements: This course engages students through a combination of lectures, readings, discussion, and in-class activities.  Students will apply course concepts and skills to determine how and why a legal rule or principle applies, or not, in a given situation, and the relevant policy implications.  Student mastery of course concepts and skills is assessed through participation, exams and written analyses of judicial opinions (also known as “case briefs”), 

The assessments and corresponding points available for each are:    

• Exams….…………………………………………..…….…...……..50%
• Case Briefs…………………….…………………………….……...25%
• Participation……………………………………..………..……..….15%
• Reading Quizzes..…………………………………………………..10%

 

 The grading scale is posted in Canvas. 

Late Assignments: Assignments submitted to Canvas before 11:59 p.m. on the due date will be considered timely unless otherwise noted.  For each day (24-hour period) your assignment is late, 20% will be deducted from your grade on that assignment.   It is the student’s responsibility to become familiar with all due dates. 

Participation Explained: Each week approximately five or six students will be selected to join the discussion.  It will be expected that these students have thoroughly read the materially (text and additional cases found on Canvas) and prepared for that week, you are expected and required to read all materials for your assigned week. These students will have advance notice of their selection and should be prepared to intelligently discuss the readings.  A severe loss of points will occur if a student is not present and/or is unprepared during their assigned week. Your participation grade, however, is not solely based on your on-call week. 

Reading Quizzes: There will be a number of reading quizzes, with less than 10 questions each.  This is simply to check whether the student read and understood the material.  These will be unannounced, and there will be no make-ups.

Exams:  There will be three exams.  The exams will be a mixture of questions.  It is anticipated that they will have short answers and multiple choice questions.  The questions will range from level one to level three on Bloom’s Taxonomy. 

Case Briefs: To be more fully explained in class, and under separate instructions in Canvas. 

 Use of generative AI (such as ChatGPT) in this class.  Using AI to assist in completing assignments in this class is prohibited.  If you do use AI, you will be committing plagiarism* and will be subject to penalties in this class and sanctions by Indiana University.  You are permitted to use the free version of Grammarly and Microsoft Word’s spelling and grammar tool. 

WARNING: Submitting any questions, assignments, notes, slides,  or other instructor-produced course materials into Generative AI without permission is a violation of the faculty member’s exclusive rights and will be reported to the Dean of Students as academic misconduct.

 *Plagiarism: Plagiarism is defined as presenting someone else’s work, including the work of other students, as one’s own. Any ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use must be fully acknowledged, unless the information is common knowledge. https://studentcode.iu.edu/responsibilities/academic-misconduct.html. (emphasis added)

 Course Materials—Instructor’s Exclusive Rights.

The faculty member teaching this course holds the exclusive right to distribute, modify, post, and reproduce course materials, including all written materials, study guides, lectures, assignments, exercises, and exams. While you are permitted to take notes on the online materials and lectures posted for this course for your personal use, you are not permitted to re-post in another forum, upload to AI, distribute, reproduce content from this course, or sell the instructor’s course materials (including notes and study guides) without the express written permission of the faculty member.

Violations of this policy will be reported to the Dean of Students as academic misconduct (violation of course rules). Sanctions for academic misconduct may include a failing grade on the assignment for which the notes/study guides are being sold, a reduction in your final course grade, or a failing grade in the course, among other possibilities.

Additionally, you should know that selling a faculty member’s course using IU email, or via Canvas may also constitute a violation of IU information technology and IU intellectual property policies; additional consequences may result.

Course Policies:

Academic Dishonesty: Academic dishonesty, including cheating on exams, plagiarism in papers, and offering someone else’s work as your own, is not consistent with ethical conduct and is unacceptable in classes.  In cases of academic dishonesty, university guidelines will be followed.  Any student caught cheating or plagiarizing will fail the course.  A student’s right to appeal such dismissal is outlined in the materials distributed at student orientation meetings.

Your involvement in this class is subject at all times to (1) the Indiana University-Bloomington Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct, see http://www.iu.edu/~code/ (Links to an external site.) , and (2) other relevant University academic policies, which are available at http://policies.iu.edu/policies/categories/academic-faculty-students/index.shtml#academicpolicies:academicandstudentaffairs. (Links to an external site.) 

A student must not adopt or reproduce ideas, opinions, theories, formulas, graphics, or pictures of another person without acknowledgment. A student must give credit to the originality of others and acknowledge indebtedness whenever:

1. Directly quoting another person’s actual words, whether oral or written;
2. Using another person’s ideas, opinions, or theories;
3. Paraphrasing the words, ideas, opinions, or theories of others, whether oral or written;

4. Borrowing facts, statistics, or illustrative material; or
5. Offering materials assembled or collected by others in the form of projects or collections without acknowledgment

To avoid plagiarism, give credit to sources (i.e., use citations) whenever you use someone else’s language or ideas. Simply including a reference list at the end of your paper is not sufficient; rather, use of citations in all written work for this class should be detailed and specific, and consistent with the APA Publication Manual, Sixth  Edition. 

Note Selling: Several commercial services have approached students regarding selling class notes/study guides to their classmates. Selling the instructor’s notes/study guides in this course is not permitted. Violations of this policy will be reported to the Dean of Students as academic misconduct (violation of course rules). Sanctions for academic misconduct may include a failing grade on the assignment for which the notes/study guides are being sold, a reduction in your final course grade, or a failing grade in the course, among other possibilities. Additionally, you should know that selling a faculty member’s notes/study guides individually or on behalf of one of these services using IU email, or via Canvas may also constitute a violation of IU information technology and IU intellectual property policies; additional consequences may result.

Course Information/Announcements:  Canvas will constitute notice to you, the student, and to the class as a whole; therefore, you are expected to check it frequently for important information.  Please check Canvas for information like final exam dates, readings, etc. 

 Recording in class:  Photographing, audio-taping, and video-taping within the class is expressly prohibited, except as authorized for accommodating a documented disability or otherwise approved by the instructor.  Students who engage in any recording may face immediate removal from class and further sanctions.

Attendance:  It is expected that the student will attend each class session and arrive on time.  With that being stated, it also understood that students will miss a class occasionally. You are allotted two absences, excused or unexcused, before absences may impact your grade.  Each class is worth at least one participation point; the classes when you are on call will be worth three. To earn full points for any class, you must be present, prepared, and engaged. 

 Attendance sheets may be passed out to verify attendance.  It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that they have signed in for that particular day.  There is no need to submit medical excuses for missed days unless you feel your missed days have become excessive.  

 Making up an exam or final will not be allowed without appropriate documentation as determined by the instructor.  In most cases the only exception is a medical condition such as a hospital admission that prohibited the student from attending.  In other words, “I have a cold” is generally not sufficient.

 Use of Electronics in class:   I reserve the right to banish electronics, including phones and laptops from class, if I feel they are being abused or are causing a disturbance in the classroom. 

 Administrative Oversights: If you find that you were left off the on-call list, not assigned cases or have any other administrative needs that I may need to be made aware (attendance sheets, religious or other holiday observances, disability support service needs, etc.), it is your responsibility to contact me to rectify the situation.  If you do not receive a timely answer, please continue to contact us (within reason) until a response is received.  

Grade Adjustments: Please don’t email me asking for a grade adjustment “just because.”  The grade you earn will be the grade you get.  Limited exceptions may be made in cases of less than one percentage point.  I will generally not respond to end-of-semester emails pleading for a higher grade.

Late Withdrawal. For full-term classes, the late W deadline is Sunday, Oct 25. See https://calendars.registrar.indiana.edu/official-calendar/ for other terms and Spring’s dates.  NOTE: late withdrawals used to require instructor permission but now only require consultation with the instructor.

After the auto-W deadline, withdrawal will be significantly limited, and you will need permission to withdraw and must meet requirements established by O’Neill.

 

 

 

Schedule of Assignments: List here the course meeting dates, the readings for each day, and days on which assignments are due and tests are given. If particular readings are dependent on, for example, a current event, the instructor may note that.  This list of course dates and readings, assignments, and tests may be posted on Canvas instead and if so, state that here.

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The following sentence is recommended so that instructors have the freedom to change the schedule of assignments as the semester progresses: “The above schedule is subject to limited change in the event of extenuating circumstances.”

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Class sessions	Topics	Readings	Assignments
Week 1, 8/25 and 8/27	Introduction and syllabus   Statutory interpretation   Case law and case briefs	“How to read a legal opinion”   “How to brief a case”   Sample case brief   Sanders v. State	No assignment
Week 2, 9/1 and 9/3	Article I and the legislature	Chapter 3 in textbook   Gonzales v. Raich   South Dakota v. Dole	Quiz
Week 3, 9/8 and 9/10	State legislatures and state regulatory power Article II and the presidency	Chapter 4 in textbook Trump v. U.S. Haaland v. Brackeen	Case brief
Week 4, 9/15 and 9/17	Article II and administrative agencies	Mathews v. Eldridge   Loper Bright v. Raimando	Quiz
Week 5, 9/22 and 9/24	Article III and the judiciary	Chapter 2 in textbook	Quiz
Week 6, 9/29 and 10/1	Introduction to the 14th Amendment	No reading	Exam on Tuesday, 9/29
Week 7, 10/6 and 10/8	Procedural due process   Substantive due process and equal protection	Chapter 5 in textbook	Quiz
Week 8, 10/13 and 10/15	The 14th amendment		Case brief
Week 9, 10/20 and 10/22	The 1st Amendment and speech		Quiz
Week 10, 10/27 and 10/29	The 1st Amendment and religion   The 2nd Amendment		Quiz
Week 11, 11/3 and 11/5	Trial procedure		Exam on Tuesday
Week 12, 11/10 and 11/12	Civil procedure   Torts	Chapter 9 in textbook	Quiz
Week 13, 11/17 and 11/19	Property   Contracts	Chapters 12 and 13 in textbook	Case brief
	NO CLASS	DUE TO	THANKSGIVING
Week 14, 12/1 and 12/3	Criminal procedure The 4th Amendment	Chapters 15 and 16 in textbook	Quiz
Week 15, 12/8 and 12/10	The 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments Sentencing		Quiz
Week 16	Final schedule to be determined

 

Counseling and Psychological Services

For information about services offered to students by CAPS:  http://healthcenter.indiana.edu/counseling/index.shtml

 

TimelyCare

Indiana students have free, 24/7 access to virtual mental health care services with TimelyCare. Students do not need insurance to access TimelyCare services. https://www.iu.edu/mental-health/find-resources/timely-care.html#0

 

Religious Accommodation Requests

The "Request for Accommodation for Religious Observances" form must be submitted by the student to the professor no later than two weeks prior to the anticipated absence.  A separate form must be submitted for each absence and for each course. Faculty do not have to consider accommodations for the purpose of allowing students to travel away from Bloomington for religious observance.  Information about the policy is found here: https://vpfaa.indiana.edu/resources/religious-observances-information.html.

 

Accessible Educational Services (formerly Disability Services for Students) 

Securing accommodations for a student with disabilities is a responsibility shared by the student, the instructor, and the AES Office. For information about support services or accommodations available to students with disabilities, and for the procedures to be followed by students and instructors: https://studentlife.indiana.edu/student-support/iub-aes/index.html

 

Sexual Harassment 

As your instructor, one of my responsibilities is to help create a safe learning environment on our campus. Title IX and our own Sexual Misconduct policy prohibit sexual misconduct.  If you have experienced sexual misconduct, or know someone who has, the University can help.

 

If you are seeking help and would like to talk to someone confidentially, you can make an appointment with:

1. The Sexual Assault Crisis Service (SACS) at 812-855-8900
2. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at 812-855-5711
3. Confidential Victim Advocates (CVA) at 812-856-2469
4. IU Health Center at 812-855-4011

 

For more information about available resources:  http://stopsexualviolence.iu.edu/help/index.html. It is also important to know that federal regulations and University policy require me to promptly convey any information about potential sexual misconduct known to me to our campus’ Deputy Title IX Coordinator or IU’s Title IX Coordinator.  In that event, they will work with a small number of others on campus to ensure that appropriate measures are taken and resources are made available to the student who may have been harmed.  Protecting a student’s privacy is of utmost concern, and all involved will only share information with those that need to know to ensure the University can respond and assist.  I encourage you to visit http://stopsexualviolence.iu.edu/help/index.html to learn more.

 

IU Culture Centers: https://studentlife.indiana.edu/communities/culture-centers/index.html