The American Constitution: Rights and Civil Liberties
POLISCI 412 examines the historical development of American constitutional thinking on individual rights and civil liberties from the founding era to the present.
Summary
Historical reviews of Howard Schweber: Exams are described as extremely difficult, expecting advanced constitutional law knowledge that causes significant stress. The course is considered challenging, though online formats with rewatchable lectures may mitigate some difficulty.
Grade history
↗letter grades
All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapSophomore standing and (POLI SCI 104 or 184)
- Sophomore standing
- POLISCI 104
- 184
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- All of
- Sophomore standing
- Any of
- POLISCI 104
- 184
Professors
Fall 2026No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Historical reviews of Howard Schweber: Howard Schweber receives polarized reviews regarding his teaching style and demeanor. Some students find his lectures incoherent, arrogant, and condescending, while others praise his intelligence, engaging nature, and ability to challenge students. Exams are consistently described as difficult, requiring significant preparation and prior knowledge.
HOWARD SCHWEBER is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2019, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Fall 2026Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|
Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
No records available.
Student experience
the class
Historical reviews of Howard Schweber: Howard Schweber’s teaching style is polarizing, with reviews describing him as either arrogant and incoherent or highly engaging and challenging. Students report a wide range of experiences, from stress and confusion to deep intellectual reward.
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 3.73 GPA, 88.0% A/AB (n=92 letter grades); Spring 2023: 3.79 GPA, 87.7% A/AB (n=81 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.91 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=64 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
Historical reviews of Howard Schweber: Exams are described as extremely difficult, expecting advanced constitutional law knowledge that causes significant stress. The course is considered challenging, though online formats with rewatchable lectures may mitigate some difficulty.
Historical reviews of Howard Schweber: Lectures are frequently criticized as unclear, incoherent, or impossible to follow, with some students finding the instructor condescending. Conversely, others find the lectures engaging and funny, noting that provided pre-written notes are helpful.
Topics
Grades
Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Fall 2026.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
Grades over time
Through Spring 2026
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Where this course fits relative to
Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels
GPA
Higher than % of other courses in this group.
Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range
letter grades
More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.
Typical course in this group: letter grades.
About this comparison
1283 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.
Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.
Sources & history
Catalog & offerings
Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.
Catalog observation history
Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.
Selected offering source records
No offering records for the selected term.
Raw records
[]
Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesModel outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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"model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
"task_version": "14",
"output_id": "ad81d669e107f07588adc395840955790bf0e439e58eee67d8a12f5c5757a106",
"requirements_status": "valid",
"dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}