This volume focuses on the constitutional doctrine and law in the areas of civil rights and liberties. It contains excerpts of landmark cases covering the first amendment, second amendment, fourteenth amendment and the right to privacy. The excerpts include the constitutional issues in these cases that are related to civil rights and liberties with other questions of law and dicta omitted.
Kimberly Clairmont is a double major studying political science with a concentration in law and politics as well as speech communication at Oregon State University. She is also an honors student, and her thesis, titled “The Women of the Court: Gender Shaping the U.S. Senate Confirmation Hearing Process”, was defended in May of 2021. She graduates winter term of 2023. She also participated in the American Politics Research Group conducting original political science research under the mentorship of Professors Rorie Solberg and Christopher Stout. After graduation, Ms. Clairmont plans to attend law school in Oregon and hopes to practice criminal law as a prosecutor for the State of Oregon, perhaps in the Portland Metro area.
Petar Jeknic graduated in 2021 with a degree in political science with an emphasis on law & politics and a minor in history. He worked on this project his senior year at Oregon State and drafted chapter outlines before creating excerpts for the voting rights chapter. Before working on Civil Rights & Liberties, he was part of the American Politics Research Group and contributed to the paper “Trump’s Judges & Diversity: Regression to the Mean or Remaking the Judiciary?” which was published as part of Open Judicial Politics, version 2 . After graduating, Petar volunteered in Denver, Colorado and Little Rock, Arkansas. He is applying to attend law school in 2023.
Sarah R. Mason studied Accounting at Oregon State University, minoring in political science. Her experience in Dr. Solberg’s constitutional law series provided the opportunity to work on this project. For the project, Sarah worked mostly on the free speech and expression chapter. Sarah graduated in 2022, and is working in Accounting in the Portland metro area. She plans to attend law school starting in fall of 2023.
Alexandria Metzdorf is a transgender alum of OSU with two BS degrees in economics and political science, and she plans to attend law school in 2024. She wants to help other trans people overcome unique challenges presented by the US legal system, breaking down barriers and shattering glass ceilings, with a particular focus on housing and discrimination. During COVID, she distributed $250,000 in funding to families in need of rent relief through the OERAP program in Oregon. In her spare time, Alexandria enjoys taking care of her extensive aroid collection, mixing her own tea blends, making hot sauce from home grown peppers, watching esoteric narrative and documentary films, and listening to vinyl records.
Rorie Spill Solberg, Oregon State University
