Instructor: James Cauthen

Office: 3241 North Hall

Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 5:00 p.m. -- 6:00 p.m. (walk-in) and other times by appointment

Office Phone: 237-8195 (voice mail checked regularly)

Electronic Mail: jcauthen@jjay.cuny.edu (checked regularly)

Class Location: 3309 North Hall

Class Time: 3^rd period (11:05a.m. -- 12:20p.m.)

Course Web Page: http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jcauthen (also accessible through John Jay College website)

Course Prerequisites: Government 101, English 102, and senior standing. You must meet these prerequisites to enroll in this course.

Important Note: Some classes for this section will not correspond with my evening GOV 435 (8^th period) class. Thus, students registered for this class must attend this class and will not be able to alternate between the day and evening classes.

This course is designed to increase your understanding of courts in the United States and the processes through which they allocate societal resources, values and costs. From this perspective, we will address a number of broad questions. How do courts differ from each other and other political institutions? How do courts operate and reach decisions? What actors contribute to these decisions and what are their roles? What impact do courts have on society?

We will discuss these questions generally and also by looking at some current issues in judicial process and politics. In addition, we will address these questions through reading and discussing 1) an account of a medial malpractice lawsuit; and 2) a description of decision-making by justices on the modern U.S. Supreme Court.

In addition, you will increase your understanding of the courts through your own observation. All students in the class will participate in a state court monitoring project administered by The Fund for Modern Courts. As court monitors, students will be required to attend and monitor the operations of local courts at various times throughout the semester. Finally, we will welcome a number of speakers throughout the semester, including New York state court judges.

As this is a seminar, our class time will involve significant analysis of the topic(s) assigned. Thus, beyond increasing your knowledge of courts, this course will improve your critical reading and oral communication skills, your ability to critically analyze arguments, and your ability to present logical and coherent arguments in written work. Your achievement of learning objectives for this course will be assessed through your participation in class discussion and your performance on quizzes, examinations, paper assignments and the court monitoring project.

1. Texts (all available at the John Jay bookstore):

1. Epstein, editor, Contemplating Courts, CQ Press (1995);

2. Werth, Damages: One Family's Legal Struggles in the World of Medicine, Simon & Schuster (1998);

3. McGuire, Understanding the U.S. Supreme Court, McGraw-Hill (2002); and

4. Rosenberg, The Hollow Hope, U. of Chicago Press (1991).

B. Articles: For some classes you will be asked to read articles from different sources. I do not consider these articles to be minor ancillary readings; rather, they are extremely important for the course, as an entire class period may be devoted to discussing the issues raised in a single article. Many of the articles assigned are not the definitive works in an area but were selected for their use in this classroom setting. Some articles are available over the world wide web through LEXIS and some are available on reserve at the John Jay library. I will provide a handout in class describing how to access LEXIS.

1. There is a course web page I have set up for this class. You can reach the page two ways. First, you can go directly to it at http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jcauthen. Second, you can go to the course homepages section of the John Jay College web site (http://www.jjay.cuny.edu) and go to the link for my GOV 435 class (the link should be included during the first week of the semester). That will get you to the course web page. On the page, you will find contact information, a link to a copy of the syllabus and a link to a "Class Announcements" page. All class handouts will be available through the web page.

2. You should visit the GOV 435 "Class Announcements" page throughout the semester. All announcements I make in class concerning the course will be posted on this page (including schedule changes). Thus, you can check the page to insure that you are aware of all announcements. In addition, I will not delete any announcement from the page for the entire semester, so you can refer to it anytime during the semester if a question comes up about an announcement made earlier in the class. Over the course of the semester, I also will include other material on this page relevant to the class (I will announce in class when posted).

A. Class Discussion: As this class is a seminar, I expect you to take an active role in the learning process. In class, I will depend almost exclusively on discussion as a method to achieve the course goals. Indeed, 10% of your grade is based on my evaluation of your participation in class discussion (remember, quality over quantity). I often will call on students to participate in class discussions.

B. Attendance Policy:

1. You are expected to attend class regularly and roll will be taken. The class discussions will not be a summary of the readings but generally will address in detail one or more concepts relevant to the topic. The material addressed in class oftentimes will not be contained in the readings. Thus, students with poor attendance likely will not do well in this class.

2. I will take attendance for every class period by passing around a sign-in sheet. It is your responsibility to see that you sign in as present. If you come to a class extremely late or if you leave early, I reserve the right to mark you as absent even if you sign the attendance sheet. If you miss more than four (4) class periods during the session, 5 points will be deducted from your final (i.e., course) grade. For each absence over five (5) class periods, your final grade will be reduced an additional 2 points. I do not grant "excused" absences, except in cases of religious observances (please see me if this occurs).

3 If you miss class, contact someone who attended and check the GOV 435 "Class Announcements" section on the course web page. Although the syllabus sets out the schedule of readings and other assignments, circumstances may necessitate changes. Any such changes will be announced in class and posted on the "Class Announcements" section of the course web page. Whether regarding schedule changes or anything else having to do with the course, students will be held to have knowledge of all class announcements.

C. Readings: You should complete all readings before the first class meeting for which they are assigned. Try to plan ahead, as some classes require significantly more reading than others do. Also, the readings require careful thought, and some material may have to be read 2-3 times to understand fully its content and implications. Apart from the influence on the Daily Quiz/Exercise grade (described below), to succeed in this class it is imperative that you keep up with the reading, as we will build upon earlier readings as the class progresses.

D. Daily Quizzes/Exercises: Throughout the semester, you will be given short objective quizzes or in-class exercises covering the reading assigned for that day. I reserve the right to administer these any and every class period. If you are not in class the day a quiz or exercise is given, you will receive a grade of 0. However, for those taking the quiz or participating in the exercise, the lowest grade I will give will be 40. Thus, you are given significant credit for attendance in class, even if you do poorly on these assignments. I also may assign short take-home exercises based on the reading. At the end of the semester, I will drop your lowest quiz/exercise (both in-class and take-home) grade when computing this portion of your final grade. Throughout the semester we will have a number of outside speakers (dates noted below). Your attendance during these speakers will count as two daily quiz grades.

E. Examinations: There will be one midterm examination during the semester and a final examination. These examinations will consist of essay questions and short answer/identification questions. The examinations will focus on the following in order of importance: 1) material in the readings and discussed in class; 2) material discussed in class but not in the readings; and 3) material in the readings but not discussed in class. The majority of the material covered on the final exam will come from the last one-half of the class. Unless excused by me, you will receive a "0" if you fail to take an exam when scheduled. Make-up exams will rarely be offered.

F. Papers: You will be required to write one short paper (Paper #1) and one longer paper (approximately 12 pages) (Paper #2) during the semester. In large part, Paper #2 will be based on your experiences in the court monitoring project, although some outside research will be required. I am willing to review and provide written comments on drafts of papers before the due date, telling you how to improve the paper. You then can revise the paper and hand in the revision by the due date. Additional information about the papers will be forthcoming. All papers must be handed in before or during class on the date they are due. Papers up to 24 hours late will accepted, but the grade will be reduced 10 points. Papers received more than 24 hours late will be graded, but the highest grade available will be 50.

G. Court Monitoring Project: All students are required to participate in a court monitoring project administered by The Fund for Modern Courts. This will require that students observe local state court operation on at least four occasions (approximately 3 hours for each session) over the course of the semester. Your participation in the project will be an element of your class participation grade. In addition, the longer paper will, in large part, be based on your experience in the project.

H. Grading: The final grade will be computed as follows: Midterm Exam -- 20%; Final Exam -- 25%; Short Paper (Paper #1) -- 15%; Long Paper (Paper #2) -- 20%; Quizzes/Exercise (average) – 10%; Class Participation – 10%. Your final letter grade will be assigned based on the College’s grading scale set out in the Undergraduate Bulletin. I will give a grade of "incomplete" only under the most dire of circumstances

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