Quinn Yeargain (they/he) is an Associate Professor of Law and the 1855 Professor of the Law of Democracy at the Michigan State University College of Law, and teaches courses in constitutional and criminal law. Prior to joining the faculty at Michigan State, Professor Yeargain taught at the Widener University Commonwealth Law School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They graduated from the Emory University School of Law and subsequently clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit for Judge Lanier Anderson.
Professor Yeargain’s scholarship is organized around the relationship between democracy and legal developments. Their research focuses specifically on institutional changes in state constitutions through amendments, the use of democracy to expand and contract state constitutional rights and liberties, and the effect of democracy on the operation of the carceral state. Professor Yeargain is a co-author of State Constitutions: Institutions, Powers, and Rights, a state constitutional law casebook soon to be published by West Academic Publishing.
Outside of the classroom, Professor Yeargain is a regular guest on state and national television and radio programs and frequently comments on current events in news outlets, including the Brennan Center’s State Courts Report and Bolts. Professor Yeargain regularly files amicus briefs on matters relating to state constitutional law and has served as a consultant in redistricting litigation.
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J.D., Emory University School of Law
B.A., University of Central Florida
Constitutional Law and the Regulatory State
This course examines the constitutional, statutory, and administrative foundations of American government. The course has two separate, but interrelated goals: First, to introduce students to the structure of and principles behind the American constitutional order. Topics covered under this heading include the sources of federal regulatory authority, separation of powers, federalism, judicial review and theories of constitutional interpretation. Second, the course offers a basic understanding of the workings of the legislative and regulatory process, with special emphasis on the role of agencies, the policy tools at their disposal, and the scope of legislative and judicial oversight of administrative action. In this fashion this course seeks to highlight the intersection between constitutional and administrative law principles across American history and within contemporary debates.
Constitutional Law II
(Formerly DCL 172)
A study of procedural and substantive due process of law, equal protection of the laws and the Bill of Rights, including freedom of expression.
Criminal Law
(Formerly DCL 131)
An examination of the criminal justice system, including emphasis on the role of defense counsel and prosecutor; the adversary system; ethical considerations; sources and aims of the criminal law and construction of criminal statutes; specific crimes against person, property and the state; inchoate crimes; defenses negating culpability; and the principles of responsibility and justification.
Criminal Procedure: Investigation
(Formerly Criminal Procedure I)This course provides students with an introduction to federal constitutional limits on police investigation under the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments. This includes the governance of search and interrogation, and the right to counsel. Students can take Criminal Procedure: Investigation and Criminal Procedure: Adjudication in any order or at the same time.
State Constitutional Law
In an era of increasing ideological and political polarization, as well as vigorous debates over how to interpret the U.S. Constitution, the attention of advocates, policymakers, and legal reformers has increasingly focused on state constitutions. Though every state has a constitution, they look significantly different--they create different structures, require different processes, protect different rights, and provide different opportunities for voter input on important questions about governance.
This course takes students on a fifty-state survey of state constitutions, including their significance and role in our federal system, how to read and interpret state constitutional texts, and the structures created and rights protected by state constitutions. Students will learn more about the unique separation-of-powers questions that are presented at the state level, state court decisions to guarantee individual rights and liberties that are unprotected by the U.S. Constitution, and how state constitutions fit into our federal system. By the end of the course, students will have a familiarity with the important principles that animate state constitutional development and litigation and will understand how to interpret a state constitution.
