Institutions et vie politique anglaise CM

Introduction : From the « liberal consensus » to January 6, 2021

• The political history can be quickly summarized. This poster describes American politics after
WW2 during 1950-60s, the « liberal consensus ». Whereas the second image, without
consensus, Trump assaulted the Capitol. One section of the political party attack a government
property which is not a consensus.

• After WW2, there was a feeling of American consensus, a sense that the 2 major parties shared
values. 70 years later, there is hardly any point of agreement between them and even get
violent.

• For example, an image of president Roosevelt (democrat president 1930s), next to general
Dwight who was a republican and became president of the country just after the war. The photo
represents them working together. Dwight continued a few policies initiated by Roosevelt.
Di erent people of di erent countries worked together and created a national consensus and it
became important that the president of the USA had to be involved in the economic aspect
during the war. The context of the war brought the two political parties together and imposed
that the role of the government was important in the economic.

I. Civil rights and war on poverty : 1960s liberalism

• A Liberal is someone who genuinely believes in the role of the federal government
(Washington) in regulating, investing (public investments), boosting, and redistribution in the
economy (insure equality between citizens through taxes and sociale services which is
opposed to liberty). For example, Roosevelt ’s new deal in 1931 with a huge amount of
employment or even Kennedy’s « New Frontier » in 1960-63 which implicated social programs
to improve equality especially for minorities and women, in particular legal, economic equality.
It all needs an important involvement in a few aspects of the economy, and social life such as
education.

• « The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and
racial injustice » → de nition of the great society a liberal program, by Lyndon Johnson (1964)
which is not only about civil rights movements but more connected to the notion of economic
equality, program. The 2 famous programs are those of Health Insurance : medicare in 1965 for
those over 65 years and with low income and Food stamps in 1964. Health insurance is a
private business in the USA. One of the major aspects of the civil rights legislations was the
civil rights act of 1964 and voting right acts of 1965 depriving minorities of voting : knowing
how to read, write... This liberal movement of the 1960s was also embodied by the Supreme
Court in the American government who made many decisions such as on women’s rights with
Roe v Wade (ruling on abortion 1973).

II. From Reagan (80-88) to Trump (2016-20) : two versions of the conservative backlash...

• A number of people were still not convinced that racial equality was a great thing for the USA,
some didn’t believe that government spending or intervention was a good thing for the country
in the economic. In the late 60-s, early 70s, a number of very serious crisis came impacting
their foreign policies (social, economic, political, diplomatic). For example, the major one, the oil
crisis in 1973 exploded. An economic factor, deindustrialization because foreign countries
Asians in particular started to attract more American companies such as the car industries. The
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 defeat in the Vietnam war was a major loss for the USA. Moreover, the civil rights movement
lead to some violent riots in a number of American cities, urban violent episodes : NY, Chicago,
New Jersey.. with a lot of African-Americans involved which was a manifestation and
consequence of the progress of the civil right movement. Inequalities were still present in
having jobs, houses... The image of the USA deteriorated ➢ a conservative backlash.

• The new philosophy which emerged implied two connected ideas : leave the economy run by
itself (less involvement of government = free market economic, pushing for deregulation) and
promote individual responsibility (deregulation provides initiative to star businesses ). Thus, it
was « big government vs self-help. Reagan was elected president of the USA 80-88, and was a
republican using the slogan « Making America great » with more values. It was the era of the
conservative revolution, also supported by conservative religious groups.

- Famous quote « government is not the solution to our problems ; government is the problem »
(Jan 81) which implied to use less government to free the citizens, investments, cut taxes by
25% of the wealthier part of the society because the logic is that money remains in the
economy and the society. It becomes a money the government doesn’t take but instead create
more jobs, investments..., reduction of government spending and action (deregulation), trickle-
down theory and so a free-market economy.

- The republican party today : Ted Cruz was a candidate to become president, 30 years later the
logic is still the same, the idea is to come back to the 1980s with less involvement of the
government and increase prosperity.

• Trump : same ideas « Make America great again », claimed to have the biggest tax cut in
history. But the tax is mostly for corporations and by cutting he pushed for environmental
deregulation, cut down the means and legislation to make sure companies respected a
minimum environmental responsibility. However, Trump is not only saying less government is
e cient, he really made his political carrier by criticizing almost every political institution. Thus,
his policy is more suggesting that government was corrupted, and not serving people’s interest
but their own : political, industrial, military... and saying that the media is fake, politicians are
fake. It shows that Trumpism has a more extreme anti- government position.

• « Drain the swamp » : deep-state rhetorics, as president his role was to clear the country
especially Washington of corrupted people, betraying the county, institution which are not
playing the role but betraying the people.

• Personnalisation of power, undermining other political institutions by claiming to be the only

true representative of ordinary Americans.

• Trumpism as populism ?
• The election of Trump has a very large reaction compared to the reaction of Obama a liberal
and a black man. Obama seem to be representing the end of a chapter, a new era of equality in
American society since he is the rst black president of the country. There is a sense of
progress. Obama managed to implement a number of ressources known as the A ordable
Obama care in 2010 ( most emblematic liberal reform) a more a ordable care in 2010 in order
to make sure most Americans could have access to Health care with less means. A vision of
the government regulating a liberal outlook which makes sense for the democrat POV. Thus,
the reaction was more against the fact that Obama was black, which shows that the social
distance between social classes is still present in American society today.

—> The A ordable Care Act (ACA, 2010) or « Obamacare »

- A ordable health insurance : tax credit, tax reduction, paying less tax by taking Health
insurance for people with limited means
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 - Regulation of insurance companies (« pre-existing conditions »)
- Expansion of Medicaid (38 states adopted this extension)
- BUT the law forces to buy Health insurance.

- Liberal because help paying taxes but also forces citizens to buy an insurance.

• Joe Biden, democratic president, seems to be more a « centrist gure » looking for bipartisan
compromise. He was the vice president of Barack Obama and came as president after 4 years
of Trump’s presidency. To make sure more voters would gather around the democratic party,
the idea was to convince the democrats and conservatives/ republicans voters (a large number
of them) who did not like Trump and would be more reasonable. Surprisingly, in 2020 Biden
started with a very liberal plan « Build Back Better Plan » with the idea of investing as public
money to create more jobs. Others liberal measures for example, a raise in corporate taxes for
companies, legislation to defend American labor union, were passed with some success in
spite of a strong Republican opposition.

- a gure which is more reassuring, recreate a consensus, talk to the liberal and republicans,
leader of the democrats party, a more white man than Obama

Conclusion :

• The event of the Capitol demonstrate the fact that he was elected was not taken positively.
Biden a reassuring gure elected did not create a consensus but polarized the two parties, the
political debate. Conservative and liberal who share something in common are very small, the
poverty is still high. A lot of the opposition is not so much on economic but more about values,
race, gender, education which polarizes more the American system.

• Moreover, Trump’s popularity among conservative Republicans has made the party increasingly
hostile to government and all institutions perceived as « elitist » (media, university...). The Culture
wars among the parties are possibly more acute than ever.

Lecture 2 : American Diversity : territory

Introduction

Geography is something that changes over the eras; not something that is frozen in time. At the
beginning, the US was just made of 13 colonies and it has evolved to become the US we know
today. Idaho : a lot of people of Oregon want to be party of an other state; they want to change
the boundaries of their state. They don’t was to move themselves, they want the border to move.
Every 10 years, a census is organize in order to count the population and thanks to the data, four
main regions have been organized. The four major regions are de ned by their historical identity.

I - The Midwest
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 The Midwest is the Northern Middle part of the country. It’s sometimes called the “Heart Land”
and represents the traditional values of the US. Mainly made of rural areas : breadbasket of
America. Today, it’s mostly industrial farming, the traditions have been lost over the years. There’s
a part that is agricultural production; corn is the major one.

There’s a number of traditional industries, especially coal production, around Pittsburg. In the 20th
century it was a real source of money because it was very attractive for people who were looking
for jobs all around the world. It’s called the “Rustbell” because they have su ered loss of jobs,
economic crisis and industries have been abandoned.

In the US, like other developed country, has been declining slowly because less people are
working in those industries, looking for other jobs in the tertiary sectors (sector that is o ering
service and not production). They moved from the secondary sector (factories) to the tertiary
sector (technology)

→ Pittsburgh used to be the steel city

II - The Northeast

The Northeast is famous for its several well known cities that are all connected with each other
(BOSWASH). This is the center of decision for the US because it has several political institution,
Wall Street, its universities provide educative workforce especially for the service industry. As a
result, it’s the region where incomes are the highest. So, the region gathers a very high level of
education, great salaries… and mostly high for its service industry.

The money, in that region, is coming from the research labs, universities, headquarters of huge
company.

There’s also several rural areas around the big cities, which made the region very diverse and is
highly connected to the history of the US. A lot of small town are connected to the very rst ideals
of the US Democracy.

III - The South

The South is gathering by its historical process, mainly linked to slavery. The traditional economy
was based on agriculture and there was a lot of social and racial con icts and discrimination. Very
slowly, the region was transformed thanks to industrialization.

In those states, the incomes are lower than other states. The primary sector of this area is oil, they
have a cheap work force which is very attractive for the factories.

Florida is well known for tourism.

IV - The West

The West was included in the US very late in the second half of the 19th century. The western
population is mainly gathered in California and the rest of the states are more empty. These areas
have speci c rules and used to be closed to private businesses.

Water is a very important resource in the West because, it’s a region mainly made of desert, and
dry areas which made Water a resource hard to access in huge quantities.

Technology is a major part of its economy but farming is also a major force for the West.
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→ The Silicon Valley (Apple, Google, Microsoft,… headquarters), boeing assembly line.

In the 20th century, a lot of land were developed by public investments.

V - The Sunbelt and the ideal of “suburbia”

The idea of the Sunbelt is due to a movement of population in the late 20th century, which was
made possible by technological innovations (air conditioning systems).

→ nicer weather, federal investments = lot of people came from the northern parts of the US

The price of lands was cheaper for a very long time. It became easy to imagine a better life : the
single family house (taxes lower, and land lower). A lot of people reached the “American Dream”,
with a perfect life away from big cities. This idea is the idea of “suburbia” which is a very positive
and attractive thing in the US. It can also happen in the North (living away from the cities). In the
South, it became easier to achieve this kind of life.

“New Sunbelt” → mid-sized cities (Austin and Fort Worth in Texas; Jacksonville, Florida…)

Lecture 3 : American Diversity; the population

Key notions :

- melting pot

- multiculturalism

- ethnic enclave

- preference system

- Immigration and Nationality Act (1965)

- “model minority”

- identity politics, nativism…

Introduction :

Until the 1950, the motto was “e pluribus unum”, which symbolized the sens of unity created by
the US. At the beginning, it was a re ection on the rst 13 colonies uni ed to create a country but
also referring to the diversity of people coming from several countries; mostly from Europe.

From the beginning, there was a diversity of people and people tried to de ne what was an
American : somebody who was able to become somebody else, and succeeded to become a new
person in America; coming from Europe. Today, the US is still a major destination for immigrants.
In 2021, over 800,000 legal migrants arrived in the US, with a visa, a green card…
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I - Thinking about diversity

Used to talk about American society : Melting Pot and Multiculturalism, which are di erent notions

a) Melting Pot vs Multiculturalism

Melting Pot : the idea that people, regardless of their origins, are members of a commun culture.
This representation has been criticized because it’s a way to remove people’s native culture in
order to say that the American culture is better than others.

Multiculturalism (or Pluralism) : several cultures can coexist in the same country. People can
coexist and respect the same rules even though they’re not coming from the same culture and
country. It’s about political representation and basically an idea in favor of inclusion. They have a
political identity, they have their own ideas and an identity as a group, not individuals.

Ethnic Enclaves : process of people trying to nd homes, work and a place / a neighborhood
where their community is represented and basically a place where other people coming from the
same country live. This create a sens of fragmentation because people from those community
won’t really try integrate themselves to other groups.

b) Measuring diversity : Census

The census is part of the American constitution. The rst goal of the Census originally was to
count the population so that each state what the representation will be in the house of
representatives. Over the years, some states have won citizens other have lost citizens…

It also allows to identity rich or poor neighborhoods, the less educated population,… It gives a
picture of each state, city, village in order to give money to each state in consideration of the
population and their needs. .

There’re questions on race and ethnicity. Someone can be black hispanic which means that their
ethnicity will be hispanic and their race will be black. They de ned themselves because of other
groups and because they’re members of certain groups, they’ll have the right to have certain help.
Today, people are okay to answer these questions and they answer them by themselves : they
chose what to answer. In the past, someone came to visit people and decided for them what
they’ll check on the list.

II - Immigration reform : a short story

Immigration over time : The polices of the US had an impact on immigration. The begging of the
20st century shows a real pick of immigration

a) Quota system

It was an immigration system based on where people are coming from. The US government tried
to controlled immigration from each country, to limit immigrants. It was based on nativism, a
preference to ethnic groups, already in the country. Nativism is still a big thing discussed today in
the US (mainly about latinos).
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 b) Immigration and Nationality Act (1965)

It creates a system for immigration, no longer based on origins but on a preference system; not
ethnicity. This new system gives visa or green cards to immigrants if they have a family
reuni cation; a relative in the country, if they have a special skill or a student… in order to develop
the economy of the country and nally political refugees are allow in the country.

→ two consequences : it increased the immigration to the US and changed, since there’re no
longer limitations of ethnicity, the origin of immigrants in the country.

Mexico and Asia has been the major source of immigration.

The “modem minority” stereotype : as opposed to latinos, asian are often seen as “model
minority” because they tend to be more educated, more hardworking, so they could make more
money, and able to enter the Americans society more easily.

c) 1990 Immigration Reform

Since a period of mass immigration, people start to realize it has changed the landscape of the
US. The last major reform that was passed, didn’t change the basic principles and the system is
exactly the same. The number of green cards were lower, family visas were also reduced and a
new category was created : the diversity visas (everybody can participate at this lottery only if
they’re coming from a country that is not represented in the US society).

III - 21st Century Attempts at Reform

No comprehensive reform of immigrant law has been passed over the last 20 years. Every sigle
president has promised to change the system but never succeeded because both parties never
been able to agree with each other. (What to do with people in the US who are non
documented?). There’s been a number of proposal. If people enter illegally, they’ll never been able
to get a green card.

A better control, especially by republicans, of the frontiers and the frontier with Mexico.

a) George W. Bush

b) Barack Obama

The DACA act: protect immigrants who came to the country when they were very young (couldn’t
realize because they were kids, forced by their parents). They should be protected because they
grew up, went to school in the US…

c) Donald Trump

Assimilate immigration and threat (latin america and muslim country). He created the “travel ban”
to exclude certain country, mostly arabic countries. This measure was unconstitutional and the
Supreme Court only agreed for a list with various country, regardless of their people’s ethnicity.
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 d) Joe Biden

Tried to o er and collaborate with Central American countries to try to prevent mass immigration.
He promised to try to facilitate the paper work and to make it less slow. Ideals of the Democratic
Party, generally more in favor of immigration and welcoming immigrants.

Lecture 4: Politics and the Media: Fighting the “Culture Wars”

The freedom of the press is part of the American constitution, and has been sort of an idealized
rules for the media.

4th Power Estate; a power that could resist corruption, institution. The media, have been
struggling with their reputation and their rules. They’re wondering how to keep the citizens
engaged.

I - Freedom of the Press:

1st amendment of the constitution. The freedom of speech / press, mentioned in the original text
as a major instruction in the life of the nation. The end of the 19th century : for a very long time,
the written press was really defending political opinions and at the end of the century, they tried to
change the image and establish rules. All new stories should be told with di erent POV. Any
newspaper must separate sections which are suppose to be factual and those which are editorial,
with opinions.

The idea of having the 4th Estate, is suppose to guarantee the American Democracy. The last
decision was made in 1974: whether media have the right to share something or not; there’s no
state government that can establish rules. The exception to this was called “the fairness doctrine”
for the radio and broadcast TV mostly. They was a rule on this because airwaves were limited to
use so the government had a hand on those cables. They had an obligation to provide the two
sides of a story and it was controversial. They were using public property so they were submitted
by some rules.

→ vote in 1997: individual freedom, the country is more conservative, republican ans asking for
more freedom and rights. The end of the “fairness doctrine” and also the emergence of cable TV:
thousands of new radio and TV channels (local mainly). A boom of the number of channels and
mainly of those new shows, radio, cable channels are conservative. Very strong push for
conservative and radio programs.

A type of news and radio, seen as entertainment and partisan, saw the light.

1996: arrival of Fox News, and dont hide the fact, from the beginning that they have conservative
values and stand for the Conservatives.

→ transformed with the internet and the social media.

Is social media a real media?

→ is it just a thing where people can share everything they want or are they responsible for what
is shared on it?

They were not responsible for what was shared.

In 2020, the major social networks shows to limit some of the info that was published on them
and some criticism about Joe Biden only based on rumors and lies. Trump said that they
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 shouldn't have censorship. If they claimed they are not newspaper, they can’t share what they
want. If they want to, they need to present themselves as traditional media with an editorial line.
There's been a number of back and forth in order to regulate the rumors, lies… but people like
Elon Musk who keep defending that Social Media is not a real media and people can share what
they want.

II - From print to digital

a) Crisis of traditional / mainstream media:

The traditional well known institution used to provide news to Americans. Most of them presented
themselves as fair and balanced, in the center of political debates. Non of them has a strong
partisan base and all of them give space to several opinions. Some newspaper are in uential in
the US, a major thing for American culture but also around the world.

All of them have been su ering very acutely.

Since the 1990, the emergence of cable TV channels, started focusing on speci c audience and
started to target a speci c audience related to a speci c political party.

→ crisis of how people get the news and some plateformes are juste a second hand of the main
source which is a TV channel. On the digital media, a lot of indi channels, compete with traditional
media.

b) crisis of mainstream media

Something they’re also called the “legacy media”. The Conservative criticized them. They
pretended to be neutral but hide a political thing.

CNN: most important news for the 30/40 years, well established cable channel in the US and
around the world and tried to create a digital channel but end after 2 months and lost their
reputation.

III - The Culture Wars

Fragmentation of the media landscape, controls have changed, social media are partly regulated:
not the same rules as traditional media which has been less in uencing.

1990s: idea that the main di erence between the two main ideology in the US are no longer
foreign policy and economic regulation or issues that used to be important is the US and now
they seem to focus of morality and values and identity… Extremely polarizing and have become
the lost important debate in the American Politics.

Evangelical movements: traditional version of christianity and believe in the bible as a historical
truth and think their role is to convert. Tried to a rm their ideas against liberal reforms. They use
new media to be more in uential (TV, Social Media,…). Strengthening conservative values through
media.

Trump: the rst politicien to use social media more directly. He didn’t have to go through
traditional media (very important)

Lot a movements took place for the rst time on social media in order to get the people involved
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Conclusion:

Now very clearly, people from a political side or an other are not watching / reading / using the
same media. The media people trust or don’t trust is almost symmetrical which create two parts
in this US.

Lecture 5 : Political Parties and Elections

I - The protagonists of US elections

a) Parties

two-party system: Democratic and Conservative parties.

Democratic party: donkey, bleu, liberal approach (in favor of government intervention)
Conservative party: the GOP (grand old party), red, conservative approach (not really on favor of
government interventions, small government law taxes, gun rights, restrictions on immigration,…)
There’re other parties like the Green party but it’s a very small one.
Currently, the democrats are leading the white house and the senate.
The house of representatives is led bu the Republicans 435 representatives (212: democrats, 221
republicans)

2) US voters

To be able to vote in the US you need to be 18 years old, said in the 26th amendment, passed in
1971. In the US the voting right has been granted over time. For example, women have been
granted the right in 1920; through the 19th (introduced in 1878) and made illegal to deny the right
because of people’s sexe.
African Americans: 1870, 15th amendement which prohibited the government to deny the right to
vote on the bases of color. The Black Codes restricted the right in southern states, especially
during the Civil Rights movement.

In 1955, the Congress passed the ‘Voting Right Act’, through Lyndon Johnson government,
introduced oversights.

In 2013, land mark decision ‘Shelby County v Holder’ which gave the states the right to organize
the elections and made harder for people of color to vote.

In the US, voting rights are still considered to be at risk and people of color are targeted by the
‘voter suppression’.

Votes in the US:

- long waiting lines

- usually on Tuesday

→ it can take hours to vote and be dissuasive.

The states decide the number of voting stations and where they’re open. SO, it can open far from
your house and if you have no means of transportation, it can also be dissuasive.

The states have issued stricter identi cations entrance. There’re an obligation to show a
government issued photo ID, since 2014. The problem is that up to 25% of African Americans
lack this kind of identi cation, compared to 8% of white people. It is said that this ID photo was
created to target African American voters.
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 Some stated are early voting, to allow more people to vote. In North Carolina, the early voting
period has been suppressed and doesn’t allow people to vote on an other day than Tuesday. On a
Saturday most people were voting and most of them were African Americans.

The alternatives to physical voting have also been restricted by some (mail, absentee,…). This is
the case of Texas, which has made the votes more and more complicated.

The Purging of Voting polls is another form of restricting votes. Some stated implemented this: the
stet cleans out their list of registers voters. In 2017, Georgia purged over half a million people from
the list of registered voters and then, 18,000 voters re-registered.

Redistricting: when you draw electoral district boundaries for the census. The districts are
rede ned because every districts has roughly the same population.

a ect the voter turnout, which has historically been very law. In 2020; 66% turnout
(presidential) and 2022; 46% turnout (midterm).

How do people vote?

- in person (very long time)

- very long document to full eld
- by mail (Oregon + Washington only vote by mail)
- absentee (sick, away from your district,…)

3) elected o cials

- federal level: president and congress people (senators and the representatives)
- state: governors of the state, state Attorney General

→ voters are asked a lot of things for a direct e ect on state

- local level: judges, sheri s, members of school board

II - The electoral process

2024: presidential elections, in order to become president of the US: 35 yo, born in the US and
have been living at least 15 years

1) timeline

January → June: voters use the presidential candidates for each party (primaries / caucuses)

July → early September: republicans and democrats name their respective candidates (national
conventions)

→ October: absentee and mail-in votes

→ November: elections day, US citizens cast their vote ans because of the indirect elections, in
December there’s the Electoral votes

January 6th: Congress certify the future president and vice president

January 20th: inauguration day (president and vice president take o ce

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2) popular vs electoral vote

Popular vote: the total amount of votes cast by the US voters on election day on their ballot.

Electoral vote: the vote cast by the electoral college on behalf of the citizens of each state. They
vote based on how the majority of voters on their states voted.

- 538 electors in the electoral college

- 270 votes needed to be elected
- based on the census, each state has a number of electoral voters.

Each state will cast its vote for one candidate (the one who received the most amount of votes).
For example in 2020, Trump won the state of Texas (38 electoral votes); California elected Biden
(55 electoral votes).

In 2016; Clinton won the popular vote and Trump won the electoral because the “winner takes
all”.

3) swing states

States that can vote either the Republicans or the Democrats. Before the elections, the outcome
is very uncertain.

map: Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pansilavania (mid wester state, rust belt)

They share conservative rural ideas and more progressive values (mid western)

South + West: the turnout of urban voters in the last elections was decisive. Africans in Georgia
decided to vote more than the previous elections and made the di erence (red → blue)

Conclusion:

Debate on democracy on the US since 2021

Lecture 6 : US constitution

Sur iCampus = https://icampus.univ-paris3.fr/plugin le.php/816513/mod_resource/content/1/

CM%206.Constitution_X3AN103_2023.pdf

Lecture 7: US institutions

Key Notions: swing votes, judicial view, judicial activism, 14th Amendment

I - The role of the Supreme Court

1) The Judicial branch

The constitutions de ne the 3 branches of the Government. The article number 3 de ne the role
of the Supreme Court. The constitution was singed in 1789. The SC is the highest court of the last
appeal. It makes the nal decisions. It has to chose what is going to change… and has its own
control over its agenda. It is usually an issue of national importance. The SC also wants to clarify
legal issues that are important to the US society.

The 9 Justices vote for which case they’re going to review, to examine. There’s the rule of 4: 4 of
them have to agree to select the case and then there’s the hearing process. The supreme court is
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giving briefs and oral arguments and the Justices in private to vote and 5 of them have to agree.
Finally, the SC writes down its ruling / holding and the Justices justify their nal decisions called
the opinions (concurring opinions; when they agree and dissenting opinions; when they don’t).

2) Checks and balances

Judicial review: It’s the ability to the SC to declare legislative or executive or laws unconstitutional.

Judicial Review picture

II - The members of the Supreme Court; the nomination process

1) the nomination process

9 justices: its an odd number, so there’s always someone who breaks the tie; someone who will
make the majority. They’re called a ‘swing voter’.
Justices are appointed for life, nominated by the president and con rmes by the Senate. They can
lose their job because of retirement or death. For exemple :
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020 and was replaces by Amy Coney Barrett
- Stephen Breyer retired in 2022 and was replaces by Ketanji Brown Jackson
They can also be impeached, but this has never happed.

2) who are the justices?

- 1st African American Justice: Thurgood MARSHALL

- 1st Woman: Sandra Day O’Connor
- 1st Latino.a: Sonia SOTOMAYOR
- 1st African American woman: Ketanji Brown Jackson
- Presidents name the justices chen they have the chance to do so.

3) The politics of nomination

When they appoint the justice, they have to take into account the state beyond their own
presidency. They’re appointed for life so they remain in the o ce long after the president live the
White House. They in uence the US politics and the life of US citizens.

Clarence Thomas; the most conservative justice. During the Roe VS Wade, he suggested to
review same sexe mariage, birth control,…. The right to abortion is no longer a constitutional
right.
There’re 3 justices (women) appointed by democratic president and 6 justices appointed by
republican presidents.

Yesterday: United Stated VS Rahimi. Rahimi is a drug dealer who owns re arms and uses for no
reasons. The right to hold a gun is a huge issue in the US and comes from the second
amendement. The debate is: do domestic abusers have the right to hold a gun?

III - Examples of rulings

1) Judicial Review

- Justices judge on laws/ actions: Constitutional or Unconstitutional

- Justices look at the Constitution to guide them
- Justices validate or invalidate a law passed by COngress or Psdt
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 2) Judicial activism v. judicial restrain

2 judicial approches: Judicial activism and Judicial restrain. The Justices look at the constitution
and the question is: stick at the book or interpretation?

Judicial activism: a justice makes decision of his or her political ideology. They’ll have a political
agenda and they’ll take into account the changes in the US society. But the system has been
criticized because of a risk of upsetting the balance of the 3 branches of government.

Judicial restrain: a justice look at the constitution to make the decision. That stick to a strict
interpretation of a law. They don’t take into account the changes of the US society.

3) Examples

Brown v. Board of Education (1954): this landmark decision ended segregation in public schools.
The rule has been considered as unconstitutional and based their decision on the 14th
Amendement (de ne citizenship and equal protection for individuals).

Plessy v. Ferguson: argued that black peoples and white people are separate but equal

Roe v. Wade (1973): justices used the 14th amendment and the right of privacy. It was
unconstitutional to deny individual the right to privacy (marital, sexual, personal,…). It protected
the right to abortion. This supreme court decision was one of the most controversial in the US
history and is still a huge debate in the US. In 2022, Dobbs v. Jackson revoked the constitutional
right to abord. As the right is no longer constitutional, each state had the right to decide if they
allow this or not. (map)

Obergefell v. Hodges (2015): based on the 14th Amendement. It legalized same sexe mariage.

Lecture 8: Education

Key notions:

school districts / boards

title IX

school vouchers

a rmative action

“model minority”

culture war

14th amendment

Introduction: Amendment X vs Amendment XIV

I - Understanding the US educational system

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 When you nish high school there’s no national exam but you receive a high school diploma; in
some case a local diploma or a state diploma. However it’s not a national degree. If you wanna go
to universities u have to pass the SATs (score); a sort of standardized national test which will help
u to get to the university u want. The high school diploma is necessary but it’s not the entrance
ticket.

- homeschooling: 3.3% in 2016 (increasing before covid), legal in all 50 states and the level of
control in extremely diverse. Some states ask the parents to declare what they’re teaching, but
some other state, u don’t need to justify the fact that your children are not going to school
- private school: 3,000 schools (4.6 million students)
- public schools are loosing students because of security, and it’s said that they’re not teaching
the right things.

Higher education system:

- graduate school: u can take your master your PhDs → law, medicine,….
- university: has master’s degree, bachelor’s degree, PhDs

Who pays for public schools? (primary and secondary schools)?

→ the federal government, doesn’t nance a lot. Schools are almost entirely nanced by local
entities.

try to balance out some of the inequalities in local nancing. A school is nanced by local taxes, it
means that the school is located in a wealthier region. Financing schools creates educational
inequalities.

Some states are much poorer than others and have to make political choices to support or not
schools. The state of NY spends 525$ per student // Idaho spends 58$ (huge di erence).
Explained by population; Idaho is more empty than the state of NY, and therefore their policies
concerning education. A consequence of federalism and as education is not mentioned in the US
Constitution, each state has to choose its policies.

School choice:

Since the late 1990s, school vouchers have been created. A ‘charter school’ is a public school
(publicly nanced) which has the right to run its own programs, select its students and teachers.
The school district doesn’t choose the teachers for students. Run by private companies: elite
schools for speci c elds with new ways of teaching to create a new more creative and e cient
way of teaching. However, they’re to supervised, they choose students (only those they want) and
are nanced by public money. Some people think it’s a better way to teach others think it’s a way
of wasting public money.

School vouchers:

Criticized: use public money to nance private schools. Some states have created vouchers, the
families can use to go to any private school they want. Money is gave to families that will use it to
select a school for their children. Presented as school freedom by conservative groups. The
money follow the student, the money doesn’t go to the schools by follow students; public or
private schools. For liberals, it’s a way to take the public money to serve private companies or
religious organizations.

→ favored by conservatives. Trump had a massive plan to general school vouchers.

A private education system also exist at a university level.

Public university are largely nanced by the state, they’re cheaper for people from the state.

→ University of California LA:

- Californie residents: 13,000$

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 - out-of-state resident: 44,000$

Ivy League universities are very expensive and hard to get in because of a hard selection.

The money made by private university is not for pro t, it’s only used for education. The money has
to be reinvested into education.

Wo pays for public universities?:

→ same thing as the secondary education. The money comes from state taxes, land taxes and
ownership. There’re also major di erences between places; some states have the desire to
support public education and others don’t have enough money to do this. Most of public
universities have lost their state funding. Since a few years, students have to pay for books and
materials themselves and most of them leave universities with a huge debt.

This became a major political topic. Joe Biden made it its political argument by promising he’ll
help students and the poorest students to stop this. This has been hugely controversial and
Republicans said it’s the student’s responsibility, they know what they’ll have to pay…

II - Who runs US schools?

The people how pay are the people how make the decisions for schools. So, education in the US
is run by states and local authorities make the decisions for secondary and primary schools. Id u
wanna teach in Texas, u have to applied for a state licence. So, teachers can’t move from one
state to another and keep their job; they have to be certi ed by the state.

School boards: organized each school day to day operations. Each state has a number of school
district. Students can be elected for their district’s school board. Each school take the decisions
they want for their school. It’s an extremely local thing that in uence on the content taught in
class. There’s a strong citizens participation.

→ political institution and sometimes district and decide the budget of the school

The federal government: in uence through funding:

14th amendment: the government has been able to intervene to the education system. When the
federal government tries to modify something, it’s based on the idea of equality between
ethnicities, genders,… it’s never a direct in uence on education. They has the power of ensuring
that education is treating students equally.

No Child Left Behind Act:

→ standardized system to mesure inequalities and allow government to take measures.

Title XI:

- equality between genders, enlarged to others. Federal government is eliminating discrimination

in education and once again the federal government has the obligation to ensure equality.

A rmative Action:

in order to receive federal money, universities have to demonstrate they make an a ront to
promote diversity amongst students. A lot of Uni started to take in consideration the origins of
their students as a factor of admission.

→ defending by the Supreme Court (changed its position about it last year). The SC claimed that
there were no evidence that a rmative action… a violation of the 14th Amendment; a completely
reversed interpretation of equal protection (supposed to treat students the same regardless of
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their background, where they came from,…). Currently, a rmative action is over in public
universities.

Conclusion: Éducation and the culture wars

Critical race theory, very controversial (sexe and gender). Major discussion which is a new culture
war topic.

Lecture 9: Justice and Society

Introduction

The US court system discuss political, social and cultural issues (culture wars)

same-sex marriage:

FR: granted through a law (Parliament) - 2013

UK: same

US: a federal right through a Supreme Court decision - 2015 (Obergefell v. Hodges)

States have the power to establish their own system of criminal and civil laws. So, they have their
own police forces, jails,… Because of the ways the US is organized, federal and state laws
coexist.

I - The organization of the judicial system in the US

1) the Department of Justice (DOJ)

It’s one of the 50 major départements that is part of the President cabinet and is part of the
judicial branch. It’s task is to make sure the federal laws are respected and that the administration
of justice is enforced. The US Attorney General is the Head of this institution. It’s currently Merrick
Garland since 2021.

2) A dual court of system: state and federal cours

They coexist but have ≠ objectives and 3 levels of juridiction exist in each state:

- state courts (trials)

- appeal courts
- state supreme court

3 levels of jurisdiction in each state (federal judicial system):

- US District Courts
- US Courts of Appeals
- US Supreme Court

In both cases, a case start at the lowest level. If a party at a state level, disagree, the case can go
to a higher court.

The state court system makes sure that rules, regulations,… are respected, makes sure the
Constitution is respected. State judges are elected (opposed to SC justices, appointed by the
President) and have political interest.
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The federal system makes sure the federal laws and rules respect the Constitution. And federal
juges are appointed for life and the can only be removed from the system buy an impeachment
procedure.

US District Courts:

- lowest court
- 94
- starting point for federal cases
- at the head of each district courts

US Courts of Appeals:

- 13 regional circuits
- the 1st level of appeal

The Supreme Court:

- the highest court and nal level of appeal

- hears a limited number of cases and usually the cases involved important questions and issued
around the constitution

II - The speci cities of the US judicial system

In the US there’re 1.3 million lawyers. One of the reason for the US dominated by trials, is to make
sure they were not dominated by a nation anymore; it’s the legacy of the British system

1) Common Law

Through the Common Law the legislative branch pass laws.

A precedent = a legal case established

2) Trial by jury

Mentioned in the constitution, and guaranteed by the 6th amendment of the constitution (part of
the Bill of Rights, signed in 1791). It’s the right to a public trial by an impartial jury and is
considered fundamental especially for criminal cases. The jury is composed by a grand jury,
composed by citizens and determine the credibility of the case before the beginning of a criminal
case.

Jury selection: people are summoned to be jurors, they’re summoned to come to the court of
house to become potential jurors. They’re questioned by attorneys for each side or the judge
about their background. They can be accepted by both partied and are sworn in as jury.

→ guarantee a fair trial and guarantee the impartiality BUT today, it a science that determines
which jury would be the best for each side.

90% of cases are settled out of courts → a plea bargain

3) Class action suits

A group of individual or business individual claim that they have su ered from a common injury.
So, they gather and come to court together.

- 2001: group of female Walmart employees who fought against Walmart because they said that
Walmart was discriminating female employees (lower wages and no promotions). However in
2011, the SC ruled in favor of Walmart because of the technical de nition of class action in this
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 speci c case. It was led by all women and the SC judged that the technical de nition of ‘all
women’ was to broad.
- 2012: against Nutella. A product claimed as a nutritious snack and parents gathered and won
about 3 million dollars.

III - Culture wars

1) Abortion

In 1973, Roe v. Wade ruled that anti abortion laws were unconstitutional. The SC ruled that
abortion was part of the constitutional through a 14th amendment (right of privacy). The decision
said that abortion couldn’t be banned in the rst 3 months of pregnancy. It led to political con ict.
The SC issued 2 other things about abortion, in 1989 and 1992 and the SC quali ed abortion has
a constitutional right.

→ the right was revoked in 2023

2) Same sex marriage

It has continued to divide public opinion in the US and in 2015, the SC led to

In 1996, a federal law was passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). When a same-sex
marriage was passed in a state, another state was not obliged to recognized the marriage. On a
federal level, it meant that this section 3 (spouse; heterosexual marriage) prevented the marriage
from bene ting from the same privileges as heterosexual marriage.

2013, DOMA was ruled it unconstitutional because it violated the 5th amendment.

2015, Obergefell v. Hodges ruled that same-sex marriage was constitutional

Justice Robert clearly disagreed and shared that a real marriage was between a man and a
women
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