A More Perfect Union: Your Path to a Constitutional Law Career
Summary:
Constitutional law offers a host of potential careers. Discover relevant online courses designed for high school students, plus the 10 key steps to take toward a career in the field.
Key Points:
- Earn your Bachelor’s degree
- Take the LSAT
- Earn your JD
- Specialize in constitutional law
- Pass the bar exam
- Gain experience in constitutional law
- Build a reputation in the field
- Network
- Continue learning
- Do pro bono work
Imagine for a moment that you are an attorney representing your client in court. But rather than a divorce case, a conflict over the sale of a business, or a dispute over a car accident, you are making a case for someone whose constitutional rights — let’s say freedom of speech — have been violated. This is just one example of constitutional law.
What is constitutional law?
In the United States, constitutional law is defined by three principal concepts:
- A combination of the structure and corresponding roles within the executive, legislature, and judicial government branches.
- The basic rights of all citizens.
- The power dynamics between federal, state, city, and municipal government agencies.
Constitutional law also works to protect how the Bill of Rights is interpreted and how it’s applied. Here are some examples of the rights guaranteed by constitutional law:
Due process: This ensures that people get fair treatment in legal proceedings. Due process also ensures that law enforcement or government agencies uphold the laws for individuals. In short, it means that a person accused of a crime has the right to know what the accusations are, and that they receive a fair trial.
Freedom of speech: The Bill of Rights was designed to protect individual rights like freedom of speech. It states that people are permitted to assemble, speak publicly, write or publish their points of view. This also includes freedom of religion. Over time, legislators have added policies that modify the right to free speech, as we’ve seen on social media sites, for instance.
Separation of powers: This focuses on the differences between the three primary branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial. The separation of powers ensures that each branch holds itself accountable to the practices specified by constitutional law, and that the branches balance the central government’s power.
Where should you start to better understand the Constitution? Prelum partner school Georgetown University has a law program library that features an easy-to-understand analysis and definition of this founding document. If you are truly interested in the field of constitutional law and some of its most famous cases, this is a great primer.
But first let’s look at what is required to become a constitutional lawyer.
10 key steps on becoming a constitutional lawyer
Here are 10 steps you’ll need to take if you intend to practice constitutional law.
Earn your Bachelor’s Degree: Successfully completing your undergraduate degree sets you up for law school and further specialized law courses.
Take the LSAT: This test is a crucial step toward law school admission. A high LSAT score increases your chances for admission to respected law schools.
Earn a Juris Doctor (JD) Degree: A JD degree in constitutional law arms prospective attorneys with the legal skills required to specialize in constitutional law.
Specialize in Constitutional Law: This graduate-level legal education delves into the complexities of constitutional ideas, judgements, and the jurisprudence around a country’s constitution.
Pass the Bar Exam: This is the final step to becoming a constitutional attorney.
Gain Experience in Constitutional Law: Now is the time to seek out opportunities to use your newfound skills after earning your degree in constitutional law.
Build a reputation in the field: Take part in lectures, workshops, legal research; contribute essays to legal publications and participate in legal groups.
Network: Establishing connections with experts, researchers, and practitioners will help your career.
Continue Learning: Ensure that you’re knowledgeable on recent cases, judgements, and scholarly debates.
Contribute through Pro Bono Work: Share your knowledge via conferences, seminars, or instructional programs on constitutional rights and provide legal advocacy.
Each step brings you closer and closer to the career you may be dreaming about now.
Why wait until college to see if constitutional law is for you?
If you are a high school student with a keen interest in constitutional law, you’ll want to explore all the high school law classes online offered by Prelum.
Here are a few exceptional options:
One of the high school law classes online can be found at William & Mary. Constitutional Law: We The People is a thorough introduction to the subject of constitutional law. It provides an inside look at how lawyers and judges rely on the U.S. Constitution to support their cases. A peek at what you’ll learn:
- How the constitution was argued by the founders and finally approved.
- The conflicts between states and the federal government, and how amendments came to be.
- Schools-of- thought on how the constitution is interpreted, how opposing viewpoints are argued, and case studies that bring this to life.
- The vital importance of the Bill of Rights, and how it protects individual liberties.
- Maybury vs. Madison, the famous case that established the judiciary’s role in law interpretation.
- The various career opportunities, such as: law, politics, the judiciary, think tanks, governmental institutions, or politics.
If your interest extends beyond the basic practice of business or criminal law to the role of law in government, you’ll want to check out our pre-college criminal justice courses from Prelum partner schools Rice University and Georgetown University.
From Rice there is Law: Shaping a Just and Equitable World. In this course, you’ll explore the role that law plays in creating equal opportunity throughout society. Or, you can discover more about political systems around the world with Global Affairs: Exploring Changing Political Systems.Tailored for high school students, this popular online course highlights the differences between democracies, semi-democracies, and authoritarian governments. What else will you learn?
- Explore the dictatorship model.
- How governments repress human rights.
- How civil liberties and human rights can erode over time.
- Analyze the role of checks and balances, public opinion, and civil society in democracies.
- Explore careers in global affairs, such as diplomatic service officer, government social. researcher, public affairs consultant, and more.
Georgetown University also offers a variety of online pre-college law and government prep courses to explore. Law: How To Think Like an Attorney empowers you to exercise the skills you need to be an attorney and a critical thinker. Another stand-out course is U.S. Politics and Government: To Form a More Perfect Union. By the time you complete this engaging course, you will be able to:
- Understand the relationship between politics and government.
- Be able to describe major institutions in American politics, their functions, and tasks.
- Know the major sources and forms of political behavior.
- Know the challenges to getting to a policy adopted.
- Acquire the knowledge it takes to get a candidate elected.
In all of these courses, you’ll consider the importance and ways the Constitution is interpreted. You’ll enjoy our flexible format with dynamic video content and interactive tools. Learn more today.
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