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Harvard Law Capitalizes on 'Trump Bump' With #Impeachment Class

By George Khoury, Esq. on March 29, 2018 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

For a dozen Harvard Law students this Spring semester, Professor Laurence Tribe is teaching a seminar devoted to what a Trump impeachment would actually look like. Keeping with his trendy Twitter persona, Professor Tribe titled the course: "Constitutional Law 3.0: The Trump Trajectory."

Though it's relatively early still in the Trump presidency, undoubtedly, it has been a rather tumultuous start that has confused and confounded many pundits, and even White House staffers. The Harvard Law School seminar is designed to discuss and explore what the Trump presidency means for constitutional law, as well as what "#impeachment" or removal would mean, and how the constitution constrains President Trump's actions. In order to take the course, students were required to submit a resume as well as a short statement of interest.

Legally Fascinating

While conservative media sources may have come close to vilifying the professor's motive and the course, it doesn't take much to understand why the popular class had to turn away so many students. Professor Tribe has over 300,000 followers on Twitter, and is basically a celebrity in legal circles. Another potential reason for the course's popularity could be related to the fact that the current administration has been credited, partly, for the rise in law school applications thanks to the so-called Trump Bump.

Given how controversial many of President Trump's executive orders and policy decisions have been, and the number of federal court challenges filed against those orders and policies, it's rather apparent that studying this administration's effects on constitutional law seems both smart and progressive. There are many legally fascinating, albeit also highly controversial, issues being decided in the federal courts thanks to the current administration's direction.

Activists Don't Need to Be Lawyers

The "Trump Bump" may be a noticeable phenomenon for non-profit public interest groups and newspapers, but whether it's actually driving law school applications is unknown. Generally, going to law school to fight for a cause may seem noble, but the costs of a legal education are so oppressive these days that it might just make doing so a foolish decision.

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