Office: 660 ICC
Office: MR 2-3:30
Telephone: (202) 687-8422
Fax:(202) 687-5858
E-mail: reedd@georgetown.edu
Areas of Specialization: American Government, Judicial Politics, Constitutional Law
Vitae (pdf)

Professor Reed's teaching and research interests center on American constitutional law, judicial politics and American politics, with a focus on the constitutional and political meaning of equality. His book On Equal Terms: The Constitutional Politics of Educational Opportunity has just been published by Princeton University Press (2001). He has also recently published in Social Science Quarterly, and the Law and Society Review. His new project explores the ways that social movements and political advocacy groups shape battles over political identities through both litigation and ballot initiatives. That work explores the constitutional and identity dimensions of the right to die, same-sex marriage, affirmative action and immigration politics. A portion of that work has been published as "Popular Constitutionalism: Toward a Theory of State Constitutionalism" (30 Rutgers Law Journal 871). His additional research interests include racial politics, federalism, and educational policy-making. A former Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution, he has also taught at Yale University and has received a Spencer Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the National Academy of Education. He also coordinates the undergraduate honors program in the Government department.

Course Schedule

Spring 2005:
GOVT 232 Constitutional Law II: Civil Rights/Civil Liberties (Syllabus)
This course continues the examination of American constitutional law begun in Government 231. We will explore issues in civil rights and civil liberties, broadly conceived, through an in-depth examination of five issues: 1) the right to privacy, including abortion and the right to die; 2) free exercise of religion and the establishment clause; 3) equal protection, focusing on racial and gender discrimination, including affirmative action; 4) cruel and unusual punishment; and 5) freedom of expression. Throughout the semester our focus will be on the legal relationship between the individual and the state and how changing politics and norms affect that relationship.

 

Courses Recently Taught
Fall 2004:
GOVT 231 Constitutional Law (Syllabus)
A study of the American Constitution in the light of judicial interpretation. Utilizing the case law approach, major decisions of the Supreme Court are analyzed and discussed. Basic constitutional principles controlling the exercise of governmental power in the political system are examined. Special consideration is given to the rulings and doctrines of the Court in the field of political and civil liberties. Part one of a two-semester course, but students may take one semester without continuing into the other.

GOVT 523 Judicial Politics (Syllabus)
This seminar on law and politics will focus on courts and legal doctrine as political agents and will explore the institutional, rhetorical and procedural dimensions of "legalized politics." A central focus of this inquiry will be how law - its institutions, its idioms, its processes and its assumptions - shapes he acquisition, deployment and maintenance of power. In short, if politics is about power, what difference does it make to the pursuit and maintenance of that power if much of our politics is pursued within legal venues? Because law as a field of practice and as a field of inquiry stretches across many disciplinary boundaries, the materials we will be studying in this course will be eclectic, drawing from political science, history, the legal academy, public policy and political theory. The substantive topics will include constitutional and legal theory; law and ideology; judicial decision-making and processes; courts and social policy.

Spring 2004:
On leave.

Fall 2003:
On leave.

Spring 2003:
GOVT 232 Constitutional Law II: Civil Rights/Civil Liberties (Syllabus)
GOVT 523 Judicial Politics (Syllabus)

Fall 2002:
GOVT 231 Constitutional Law (Syllabus)
GOVT 278 Senior Honors Research Seminar (Syllabus)
Limited to College Senior Honor Students in the Department of Government. This course will focus on research methods and research design in preparation for the senior honors thesis. Students will be expected to choose the topics of their honors thesis and present preliminary research findings at the end of the semester.

Spring 2002:
GOVT 232 Constitutional Law II: Civil Rights/Civil Liberties (Syllabus)
GOVT 523 Judicial Politics (Syllabus)

Fall 2001:
GOVT 231 Constitutional Law I (Syllabus)
GOVT 238 Senior Honors Research Seminar (Syllabus)

Spring 2001:
GOVT 232 Constitutional Law II: Civil Rights & Civil Liberties (Syllabus)
GOVT 523 Judicial Politics (Syllabus)

Fall 2000:
GOVT 231 Constitutional Law I (Syllabus)
GOVT 278 Senior Honors Research Seminar (Syllabus)