Learning Constitutional Law bit by bit as an Older Person

Anyone Can Make Progress at Any Age

The colleges are a disaster and that’s why it’s good news that anyone can make progress at any age at learning.

It helps to have a good mentor, though.

I’ve taught 5 (or 6, depending on how you count) disciplines in college. That’s because I’m crazy. I spent 20 years in graduate school and earned 7 degrees.

One of my very favorite subjects is Constitutional Law. It’s the field in which I did my doctoral dissertation. It’s got me thinking: can anyone learn this stuff at any age ? Do you have to go to college to learn it ?

Let’s take the last question first. No you don’t. The resources are out there. With some guidance and inner drive, you could make significant progress. And the second question: yes, I think barring some major health challenge, anyone can learn this stuff at any age. Moreover, the way education is sooo screwed up these days, it’s going to be imperative for us going forward that more and more citizens take it upon themselves to begin learning this stuff.

Here’s something you could do today. I’m a professor. I lecture, but I also assign work. The assignment is just as important if not more important than the lecture. If the student doesn’t do the work, the student doesn’t learn. That is an eternal truth. Teacher say, but if student doesn’t do, no learning takes place. It’s a two-way street.

So here’s the assignment:

There is a wonderful podcast called “Stream of Conscience.” Ordinarily they focus on litigation issues in the First Amendment. The First Amendment has multiple provisions. The first two relate to religion. They’re called the religion clauses of the First Amendment. That’s what this podcast focuses on.

Usually.

But this one time, they actually focused instead on property rights.

Now, property rights are a different aspect of Constitutional Law usually not associated with First Amendment litigation.

But my goodness, I think the property rights and economic issues in Constitutional Law are some of the most foundational.

Stream of Conscience did a lovely job of showing how property rights and freedom of religion are related in real life in this episode. They did it by telling a true story, so you learn some history, as well.

Here’s the host website. The episode is called “Taking Your Land” in Season 2. You may need to scroll down to find it and play it. https://www.becketlaw.org/stream-of-conscience/season-2/

Here’s the link to the episode on Spotify and another on Apple podcasts.

What stands out to you about the relationship between Property and Religion ? Is one more fundamental than the other ? In what ways can the Government threaten both at the same time ?

Exam:

In what ways does this case illustrate the importance of stable definitions of terms? For instance, does the government redefine any terms incorrectly ? In what ways does the government simply redefine the term “private” to mean “public”? Can a majority of elected representatives simply vote to redefine any term it wishes to redefine ?

Pay close attention to the definitions of terms. You’ll notice that comes up over and over again in Constitutional Law and American Politics.

For instance, look at yesterday’s post: The Unsafe Handgun Act defined actually safe handguns as “unsafe” in order to ? In order to infringe on individual rights.

Beginning to get a systematic handle on definitions of terms is a key skill to begin to master in so many aspects of learning, whether it’s theology, philosophy, or law and politics.

Love,
Lucas J. Mather