The whole idea for this series came from a tweet.

It was by Elizabeth Joe, she's a professor at the UC Davis School of Law,

and I know her personally because our kids go to the same elementary school.

Elizabeth's tweet read, and I'm paraphrasing a little

bit so it sounds better when I read it out loud. Teaching constitutional law in 2017

means glancing at Twitter every five minutes before a class.

First, I laughed, then I retweeted it, and then I wondered,

what does that mean exactly?

I mean, I kind of have an idea what constitutional law is.

It's a class that's sometimes called a structural... I kind of have an idea what constitutional law is.

It's a class that's sometimes called the structural aspect of the Constitution.

That is the aforementioned law professor Elizabeth Joe.

So I talk about things like the separation of powers. What are the different powers of

the president versus Congress? I also talk about federalism so how much power

Congress has as opposed to state legislatures.

It's nuts and bolts.

It's usually a requirement if you're going to be a lawyer.

It's a class I love teaching a lot.

I admit that not every student loves it.

And I can see why. For example the very first

case I assign on the first day of class every year is a case that was written in

1803. It's called Marbury versus Madison. It's a big deal and we'll talk about it at some point.

...