PA 752

Public Administration and the Law

Fall 2008

Requirements

Required texts

 Rosenbloom, David H. Administrative Law for Public Managers, Westview Press (2003)

Rosenbloom, David H, James D. Carroll and Jonathan D. Carroll, Constitutional Competence for Public Managers Thomson Custom Publishing (2000).

You will find excerpts of the judicial rulings we discuss hyperlinked to the class web page or in Constitutional Competence.  But you should also become familiar with http://lp.Findlaw.com and Lexis (available through SFSU library's website) in order to find the full Court decisions that are relevant for papers you write, and for statutes we will discuss during the semester.

Other readings will be hyperlinked to the class schedule web page, or available from Electronic Reserve (also linked to the class schedule web page). Readings will be added to the web page over the course of the semester, so please review it weekly.

The MPA program has the following expectations for students in all classes:

Assignments

Class participation. (10% of grade). It is important that you learn, and demonstrate your ability to contribute to the discussion of the important subjects on our agenda, as you would if this were a discussion occurring at a meeting in the workplace. Expected contributions to the discussion include the following:

1. No later than noon of the day of each class session, use the ILearn Discussion feature to pose 2 questions for discussion from two of the assigned readings (each from a different reading). To ensure you are not repeating a question already posed by a classmate, be sure to check to see what questions have already been submitted. If you have trouble with ILearn e-mail the question to me. These are questions about issues that can be discussed; not questions about facts (although you can certainly raise those as well).
    

2. Participate actively in the discussion of during the class session.
    

3. Pose questions to students presenting oral arguments before the Supreme Court as if you were a justice hearing the arguments.  
   

4. If you are unable to attend a class, you will be expected to contribute your thoughts about the reading by submitting written responses to at least four of the discussion questions posed by students for the discussion you missed, and at least one of the questions posed after each case excerpt assigned for the week in Constitutional Competence.
    

Short papers (25% of grade)

These are brief exercises designed to give you practice in finding, understanding and applying regulations, statutes or case law. You, as administrator in a hypothetical government agency, will be presented with a scenario and asked to find and interpret the relevant document(s) and to write a brief memo explaining its implication for the situation at hand. See class schedule page for due dates

Written Brief (25% of grade). 

At the first class meeting, I  ask you to sign up to represent either the plaintiff or respondent in one of the more current cases noted on the class schedule.   You will be expected to develop an argument supporting that position, based primarily on the arguments made by the justices (or judges). The briefs are due Oct. 6

Oral Argument (10% of grade).

You will be required to present your argument to the Supreme Court justices (your classmates and me) in a “mock” Supreme Court session on the day scheduled in the syllabus. You should use the comments I make on your written briefs to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of your oral argument.

Paper on the Courts and Public Policy (30% of grade)

For this paper you will select a public policy that has been addressed either by executive order or statute (or both) and by the Courts. This paper will assess the impact each branch of government has had on the current interpretation and application of that policy. It will be primarily based on library research. A one page proposal for this paper (example of this to be provided with style sheet) is due on  Nov. 3, and the final paper is due on Dec. 15. You will also be asked to make a brief presentation of your paper to the class at the final class meeting.