The course will take up four major topics:

(i) Justiciability, including standing, mootness, ripeness, and political questions.
(ii) Jurisdiction, including issues of congressional control of lower and Supreme Court adjudicatory power.
(iii) The lawmaking power of the federal courts.
(iv) Suing government, including immunity doctrines, causes of action, and habeas corpus. 

These topics are broadly relevant for litigation but have special import for certain types of practice. Most obviously, the above material is important for federal constitutional litigation, which paradigmatically involves civil rights but also frequently features business interests. On the defense side, many government attorneys deploy material covered early in the class to defeat various types of litigation. And much of the material is critically relevant for criminal, post-conviction, and prison work.