Political Science

Todd Lochner

Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Associate Professor of Government, 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 2019

POLS 305 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 425, LAW 478, Legal Reg. of the Political Process

The legal regulation of the American political system. The equal protection concept of voting rights, particularly the “One Person, One Vote” rule and the Voting Rights Act, and federal campaign-finance regulation. Additional topics include the constitutional rights of political parties and the law relating to ballot propositions. Discussion of descriptive and normative issues. This course is taught at the law school.