The United States Constitution provides that: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof ...” Some analysts have argued that this assignment of power to “the Legislature” gives rise to important limitations on state judicial authority. According to a strong version of this theory, state courts are barred from reviewing the constitutionality under their own state constitutions of state laws that regulate federal Senate and House elections. This presentation will address this so-called “independent state legislature doctrine,” which is now under consideration by the Supreme Court.

In 19__, a woman named Leoma Patterson went missing, last seen leaving a bar in Clinton, Tennessee. Eighteen months later, a skeleton was found in the woods in an adjoining county. Investigators concluded the bones were Leoma Patterson’s, and they were buried in a family cemetery. But some family members always doubted the identification. Two decades later- - during the heyday of the TV crime show “C.S.I.”- - the family asked forensic anthropologist William Bass, of “Body Farm” fame, to exhume the bones and definitively identify them. Thus began a wild, roller-coaster-ride investigation by Bass and writer Jon Jefferson.

The last Jacobite rebellion in Scotland was led by Charles Edward Stewart in 1745-46. The disastrous defeat at Culloden led to the Highland Clearances. These changed the Highlands and its culture forever, and led to the diaspora of highland Scots all over the world.

On February 17 1913, New Yorkers witnessed the opening of the International Exhibition of Modern Art, known as the Armory Show. As the largest exhibition of European and American avant-garde art in the nation to date, it changed the history of art in America. Matisse, Picasso, Duchamp, Picabia, and Brancusi were praised and reviled -- their galleries dubbed “the chamber of horrors.”; American artists dominated the galleries but most were ignored by the critics, collectors, and public who came in droves to see and buy the “futurist” art. We will study the art, cartoons, and commentary of this revolutionary exhibition.