Understanding American Legal and Political Foundations

📋 Course Outline

1. MLK Day and other federal holidays
2. Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day
3. Kennedy family political legacy and events
4. Civil Rights Movement, segregation and voting rights
5. Civil disobedience and Thoreau resistance
6. Colonial North America: charters and governance
7. Theocratic New England and Puritan ideology
8. Common law foundations of US legal system
9. Impeachment and English Bill of Rights influence
10. Denialism, antisemitism and Deborah Lipstadt
11. Checks and balances after Capitol assault
12. Rule of law, autocracy by legal change

📖 1. MLK Day and other federal holidays

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• MLK Day : MLK Day is a U.S. federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., observed on a specific weekday rather than a fixed calendar date.
• Presidents' Day : Presidents' Day is a U.S. federal holiday observed on the third Monday of February for multiple U.S. presidents.
• Indigenous Peoples Day : Indigenous Peoples Day is a U.S. federal holiday observed on the second Monday of October, replacing the former Columbus Day in official naming.
• Independence Day : Independence Day is a U.S. federal holiday observed on a fixed date, July 4, tied to the 1776 Declaration of Independence.
• Thanksgiving : Thanksgiving is a U.S. federal holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

📝 Essential Points