Again, in no particular order.
Question: What is the goal of con law?
Answer: As a general matter, to structure the government and politics of a society -- to set the ground rules for how we, as a polity in a democracy, govern ourselves.
Question: What kind of lawyer needs to know con law?
Answer: At some level every lawyer needs to know something about constitutional law, for all law is formed against the backdrop of the constitutional rules that make such lawmaking (whether in the form of statutes, regulations, or common law rules) legitimate. Certainly, every citizen should know a bit about constitutional law, which is part of the point of the course.
Comment: Sometimes you entertain too many questions from students when we are behind in the materials and I want to move on. I think questions from students are important, but sometimes it can take away from your lecturing and explanation of the material.
Response: First, I think you are giving my lecturing too much credit. But to get to the heart of the point, this is a balance that, at some level, you just have to trust me with. (1) I want to make sure that everyone feels comfortable asking questions, so I want to err in that direction, at least at the beginning of the semester. (2) It may not seem so to everyone, but I am actually screening questions and only answering those that I think are relevant to the subject we are discussing. Indeed, I think some of our most interesting discussions thus far in the semester have emerged in the give-and-take of questions and answers. (3) The material assigned for a given class, and really for the semester, is somewhat arbitrary. So we are not really ever "behind" in a meaningful sense. Trust me, we will have plenty of time to cover the essential material for the course. (4) Finally, let me urge you not to "tune out" when someone asks a question, even if you have heard similar questions before, even from that student. We can all learn from these interactions.
Comment: I feel like it would be helpful to mention what we might expect on the exam.
Response: As the syllabus explains, the exam will be a mixture of objective (multiple choice) and essay questions. And the best indication of what the essay questions will be like are my past exams, which are posted on the ClaraNet site.
Comment: I'd like some more time spent on how you would like us to analyze things -- in general and for the final.
Response: Our problems in class are meant to fulfill this objective. Indeed, the problems we work through in class are very much like exam questions, and the way we have proceeded to analyze them reflect my expectations. In addition, you can look at the model answers that I have posted to past exams.
Comment: Things move quick. Maybe some time at the start of class to review the previous class would be good.
Response: I have tried to provide a bit more of this the last couple of classes.
Comment: I wish you could make references to info you are conveying and statements like "I might ask a test question about this . . . like . . . ." References to the testing content and what to expect would be a great help.
Response: I appreciate the anxiety many of you may have about the exam for this class, particularly if the way I approach the material is somehow qualitatively different from other professors you have had. At the same time, this is graduate school. Flagging issues that I may ask on an exam is, well, beneath you. You all are better than that, and you deserve a higher level of discourse. Maybe the simplest way I can state it is this: I see my role as organizing and structuring the class, ensuring that you are exposed to the important material and guiding you as you work through it; it is your responsibility to learn it -- to figure out what is important, how to synthesize it, how to fit the various parts together into a coherent whole, and to see how to apply it to novel, unforeseen circumstances. That is what you will be doing as a professional in two or three years. Clients will not tell you what is important in the long, rambling stories they give you. Nor will they give you any hint of how to organize or outline that material. You will have to figure out how to do that on your own, and law school is meant to be a training ground for that -- a place to do it where no real lives are at stake. Again, I am happy to help when you run into stumbling blocks. But if I were to indicate how you should go about this process in the first instance, I will have short-circuited the process that is singularly central to the law school experience, the means by which you should develop the most important skill a lawyer possesses.