Constitutional Torts & Constitutional Law at the same time? Forum

[Jloubriel26]

Hey all:

Would anyone recommend a student taking the above referenced courses during the same semester? Con Law is 4 Credits while Con Torts is 2 Credits. I'm a Part-time evening Student.

Thanks in Advance

[BVest]

Hey all:

Would anyone recommend a student taking the above referenced courses during the same semester? Con Law is 4 Credits while Con Torts is 2 Credits. I'm a Part-time evening Student.

Thanks in Advance

Con Torts? For individuals, isn't that pretty much limited to enslavement?

ETA citation: Laurence H. Tribe, How to Violate the Constitution Without Really Trying: Lessons from the Repeal of Prohibition to the Balanced Budget Amendment, 12 CONST. COMMENT. 217, 220 (1995) ("The upshot is that there are two ways, and two ways only, in which an ordinary private citizen, acting under her own steam and under color of no law, can violate the United States Constitution. One is to enslave somebody, a suitably hellish act. The other is to bring a bottle of beer, wine, or bourbon into a State in violation of its beverage control laws.")

[Person1111]

(1) "Constitutional torts" is basically just a shorthand for Section 1983 and Bivens claims. A constitutional torts class will probably cover Bivens and implied private rights of action under the constitution and federal statutes, the way in which 1983 creates a private right of action for violations of the constitution, the state action/color of state law requirement, absolute and qualified immunity, some nuts-and-bolts stuff (section 1988, the PLRA, etc.), and other such topics.

(2) I would take Constitutional Law first; the material is hard enough without also having to learn all the substantive constitutional law doctrines. At some schools there's a lot of overlap between what you learn in a constitutional torts course and the ordinary federal courts course, but at others there may not be.