Constitutional Law study plan

Outline the categorical and quasi-categorical speech doctrines (incitement, true threats, obscenity, fighting words, commercial speech) and state the governing test for each from memory

Map the levels of scrutiny to equal protection classifications, then write the classification-to-tier lookup table without notes

Brief six Supreme Court speech and equal protection decisions and extract the operative rule from each holding rather than the facts

Build a one-page flowchart tracing a speech regulation from forum analysis through narrow tailoring

Distinguish public, designated, nonpublic, and limited forums and identify the standard governing each

Explain the Establishment Clause tests and how the current doctrinal approach differs from the Lemon framework, including coercion and historical-practice reasoning

Apply the Free Exercise standard to neutral and generally applicable laws versus laws targeting religion, and articulate the hybrid-rights problem

Draft rule statements for symbolic speech, expressive association, and government speech

Trace the doctrinal basis for judicial review and enumerate the justiciability doctrines with their exceptions

State the standing elements and distinguish taxpayer, third-party, and organizational standing

Outline the political question doctrine and identify the categories courts treat as committed to the political branches

Chart the progression of Commerce Clause doctrine from direct/indirect effects through the substantial-effects test and the modern limits on regulating inactivity

Explain the necessary and proper power and how it interacts with enumerated powers

Distinguish the spending power's conditions from coercion and apply the anti-commandeering rule to federal mandates on states

Analyze state sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment, including abrogation, waiver, and suits against state officers

Compare preemption doctrine categories and identify when federal law displaces state law

Outline the dormant Commerce Clause and the state taxation limits it imposes

Explain the appointments and removal power doctrines and their limits on congressional control of agencies

Analyze executive privilege, immunity, and the scope of the pardon power

Distinguish the President's domestic and foreign affairs authority and describe the Youngstown framework for executive action

List the incorporated Bill of Rights provisions and identify the unincorporated ones

Distinguish procedural from substantive due process and state the tests for each

Apply strict scrutiny to fundamental rights, including voting, travel, and access to courts

Explain the substantive due process line from privacy to intimate association and identify the current standard for recognizing new unenumerated rights

Define state action and apply the public function, entanglement, and entwinement tests to novel facts

Explain the congruence and proportionality limit on congressional enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment

Identify available constitutional remedies, including exclusion, injunctive relief, and damages under the relevant statutes

Revisit equal protection with a focus on discriminatory intent versus disparate impact and the burden-shifting framework

Run a full-length timed simulation weighted to Domains 1, 2, 6, and 7, then review every miss for the underlying rule gap

Recite from memory the scrutiny tiers, forum standards, and justiciability elements under time pressure

Draft condensed attack outlines for each of the ten domains limited to one page apiece

Identify the three weakest domains from simulation data and re-drill them with targeted questions