Political Science

Todd Lochner

Associate Professor and Department Chair

J.R. Howard Hall

Todd Lochner teaches undergraduate courses in Constitutional Law, Civil Liberties, Introduction to American Politics, and Law, Lawyers and Society. He also teaches a joint undergraduate-law school course on Election Law at Northwestern School of Law, where he is a Research Fellow. His articles appear in Law & Policy, Regulation & Governance, Election Law Journal, and Justice System Journal, among others. He enjoys spending time with his wife Suzanna watching Game of Thrones, Master of None, and The Crown.

Teaching

Spring 2018

POLS 103 Intro To American Politics

The politics of the founding period; interactions within and among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches; the federal division of institutionalized powers; public opinion, interest groups, and political parties; the policy process in areas such as defense, welfare, civil rights and liberties, and international affairs.

POLS 305 American Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties

Focus on the First Amendment, particularly free speech (including areas of national security, incitement to lawless action, individual and group defamation, indecency, and obscenity), as well as criminal defendants’ rights (including Fourth Amendment search and seizure law, Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, and Eighth Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment in the context of the death penalty). Discussions of actual Supreme Court rulings, majority opinions, and dissenting arguments, as well as the political and historical context of those decisions in an effort to understand how and why the Supreme Court has played such an influential role in American politics and political thought.

POLS 400 Senior Seminar