Fall 2025
Professor(s):
Kellen Zale (FACULTY)
Credits: 3
Course Areas: Constitutional and Criminal Law
Time: 2:30p-4:00p MW Location: 210
Course Outline: While much of law school focuses on federal law, state and local law affects people more directly and concretely.? States and local governments have substantial law-making and regulatory authority in areas as diverse as education policy, civil rights, tax law, land use and environmental issues. States and local governments are also responsible for the financing and provision of most public?services, and?are the?locus?of much political participation by voters.?This course examines both the law governing the powers of states and local governments and how those laws impact the substantive laws and policies of states and local governments, with a focus on the laws governing the relationship between state and local governments.?Although we will discuss examples and occasional cases from Texas, students should be aware that this is not a course on Texas state government or Texas local governments. The objectives of the course are to: (1) gain a foundation in the substantive doctrinal law underlying state and local government law and policy; (2) apply critical legal thinking to identify and understand constitutional, statutory, and regulatory constraints applicable to the subject matter; (3) develop an understanding the ethical and policy issues related to the subject matter; (4) integrate the doctrinal study of the subject matter with the analytical and practical skills necessary to the practice of law; and (5) develop skills in legal analysis, reasoning, problem-solving; and written and oral communication related to state & local government law. Classes will involve on-call discussion, lecture, small group exercises, and other learning modalities.
Course Syllabus: Syllabus
Course Notes: (Face-to-Face) The UH registration system instruction mode for this course is listed in parenthesis. For this instruction mode, instructors and students are expected to normally be physically present in the classroom. If the course has a final examination, it will be in a classroom requiring your physical presence. Other assessment, such as a mid-term exam, may also be in a classroom. Whether this instructor will offer “remote presence” (starting a zoom meeting from the podium computer to enable student remote access on an occasional basis) for part or all of the semester is not known, but students should not rely on an expectation that remote presence will be available.
Prerequisites:
First Day Assignments:
Final Exam Schedule:
This course will have:
Exam:
Paper:
Satisfies Senior Upper Level Writing Requirement: No
Experiential Course Type: No
Bar Course: No
DistanceEd ABA: No
Pass-Fail Student Election: Available
Course Materials
Book(s) Required
Course Materials: Briffault?et al.,?Cases and Materials on State and Local Government Law?(West, 9th?ed. 2021) (ISBN: 9781647085612)
o E-books are an electronic source and thus are not permitted during the final exam; therefore, students should ensure that they do not purchase an e-book only version of the casebook or the required supplement book, since e-books are not permitted during the exam.
o Other editions of the casebook are NOT equivalent substitutes; students must obtain the designated edition.
