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They're all curved. So try to avoid thinking about 'hard' and 'easy'. More accurate would be 'competitive' (Fed courts, and to a lesser extent admin) or 'difficult' (word on the street is that to one degree or another all of those courses are a little tougher than average to 'get').

A difficult course to a good student can be an opportunity, because it's easier to stand out. Many on this board have opined that 'easy' courses are 'hard' for good students because the exam scores can be condensed.

I'm a 1L too, so I can't give you specifics, but I think the above framework is a good way to approach it. It might all be different at your school than at others, too. I'm sure that fed courts is more competitive at schools where a substantial number of people in the class are gunning for a tough CoA clerkship spot.

I find that Admin is quite similar to Con Law in many respects (i.e., a series of vague tests that are applied seemingly haphazardly, until the whole framework is tossed out in favor of some new set of vague tests), so if you did well in Con Law, Admin will likely be a good choice. In contrast, Sales/UCC Art. 2 is very rules-based, so if that sort of course suits you, that's likely a good way to pad your GPA.

Disco's point about curving is the most obvious thing that you should consider regarding "difficulty." That being said, there are some classes that are just more intensive than others. For instance, tax & bankruptcy are so heavily code based that you have to do a lot to keep up with the material. You can just as easily do well in those courses relative to your peers but it might impact your performance in other courses.

I'm not sure from your profile, but if you go to Emory, the 1L's next year will have an elective and from what I hear they are going to be steered toward courses like Admin and Fed courts. I would wait until 2nd semester; for a GPA boost, I would take a course with a bunch of 1L's any day.

I'm a 1L so obviously my knowledge is limited, having taken none of those courses. However, I've heard that the students going for clerkships will take fed courts and probably admin and conflicts. The difficulty of the class doesn't matter too much, given the curve, but the quality of the students taking the classes matters a lot.

Completely depends on your prof.

But from your list, I took bankruptcy, secured transactions, conflicts, and federal courts.

Conflicts is great and can be taken at any time. Issues don't come up in every case, but when they do, they are game-winning. Federal courts is OK. It's kind of a survey of federal practice. Good to take if you want a clerkship, but I probably wouldn't have taken otherwise. I recommend secured transactions before bankruptcy if you want to go that route. Bankruptcy is a good course to take if you think you may be job-hunting as a 3L and you have decent grades because it opens up the doors to bankruptcy clerkships (that is, without at least the basic bankruptcy course, you likely would not have a shot at a bankruptcy clerkship).

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Fed courts and admin are both "hard" in that they hurt your brain the same way that Erie & personal jurisdiction do in 1L.
I haven't taken conflicts but I hear it's not bad.
Don't not much about the other 2, but they seem like very dry topics unless you're into them.

Btw...the "Federal Jurisidiction" Concise Hornbook series book was very useful for federal courts. The E&E wasn't bad either. I used them both more than my casebook and managed to hold my own in a class that was loaded with law review kids.