Grading The Controversial Florida Seminar Paper

Earlier today I wrote about the New York Times expose concerning the grading of a student seminar paper at the University of Florida. I've now had a chance to read the paper.

First, from a technical perspective, the paper is very well done. The writing is easy to understand. The footnotes are expertly bluebooked. The sentences are bit too long for my taste, but many law professors like long sentences with many clauses. I don't have the rubric, but I would imagine the student would receive full credit, or near-full-credit for these technical elements.

Second, the author also presents a fairly detailed analysis of modern originalist scholarship. He accurately describes the views of McGinnis and Rappaport, Randy Barnett, and Adrien Vermeule. The author brings in discussion of the Federalist Papers, records from the Constitutional Convention, and early congressional debates over slavery. Again, I don't have the rubric, but I would imagine the student would receive full credit, or near-full-credit for the literature/background information section.

Third, I'll turn to the substance. The basic argument is that under what the author describes as National Constitutionalism, the Constitution should be understood to protect the sovereignty of "the People." And, following Verdugo-Urquidez and Heller, "the People" are Americans, and not aliens. But the author doesn't stop there. Citing records from the early republic, he concludes that the founding generation sought to discourage immigration from non-White countries. He quotes Professors Gabriel Chin and Paul Finkelman who wrote, "whether or not they supported slavery, a majority of [the Founders] unambiguously conceived of the United States as a White country." (I'm not sure anyone would disagree with this point.)

This analysis leads the author to three conclusions. First, the author would read Article IV, Section 4 to permit the states to play a role to prevent the "invasion" of migrants. (This section more-or-less tracks Judge Ho's concurrence, and arguments advanced by the Trump DOJ.) Second, the author would allow the courts to strictly scrutinize immigration policies that would "dissolve the people and elect another." Third, the author would subject discrimination against aliens to mere rational basis review. He would also overrule Plyler v. Doe and Wong Kim Ark. The author recognizes that his positions are in tension with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. But he cites the longstanding debates about whether these amendments were properly ratified, and whether they are substantive unconstitutional. If these amendments were not ratified, then we are left with the Constitution without the Reconstruction Amendments.

Here is my assessment. The article is laid out backwards. At the very end, the author contends that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments may have never been properly ratified. And his conception of National Constitutionalism is premised on those two amendments never changing the constitutional order. Or alternatively, he contends that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment should have no bearing on how immigration policy is understood. But if these points are wrong, then many of his points would not follow.

Were I to have advised the student on the paper, I would have had him reverse the entire theme. At the outset, the author would have the reader assume--at least for purposes of a thought experiment--that the Reconstruction Amendments were never ratified. Then, the reader would imagine that Congress adopted twentieth-century style open immigration laws. Would those laws violate the original Constitution? If the federal government failed to stop the flow of migrants, would the states then have the power under Article IV to repel the invasion? Could courts declare those laws as unconstitutional?

The author does repeatedly refer to a preference for White people, and blocking non-White immigrants. At least in this paper, the Author frames this preference in terms of how the Framers would have understood immigration--I think he accurately describes that history. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we know that the author was in fact also articulating his own policy preferences. But based on the paper, the author was presenting this thesis as a matter of scholarship.

Where does this leave us? Is this the best student note I've ever read? No. Was it executed well from a technical perspective? Yes. Was it thoroughly researched? Yes. Did it present a coherent thesis based on history? Yes. Was it well organized? Not really. The article under-developed the core obstacle--the ratification of the Reconstruction Amendments--and doesn't explain how the Supreme Court would overrule certain landmark precedents. But these sorts of shortcomings are typical of law student papers. What would I give the paper, having never met the student or heard his presentation? Probably a B+ or maybe an A- if I was feeling generous. Then again, I didn't read any of the other papers in the class, so it is tough to compare. And remember, under the syllabus, the final paper is worth only 65% of the final score, so we do not know what other elements the student contributed. A final grade of A or A+ is well within the bounds of reasonable grading.