{"id":3868,"date":"2026-04-29T16:34:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/?p=3868"},"modified":"2026-04-30T09:55:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:55:20","slug":"dazzlingly-impressive-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2026\/04\/29\/dazzlingly-impressive-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Dazzlingly Impressive Students"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\u201cTell me what you know about Mr. Hamdi,\u201d came the opening directive from Professor Scott Himsel to his constitutional law class on this Thursday morning.<\/p>\n\n

As the 19 students sitting around the conference table in Baxter Hall begin unraveling the day\u2019s featured court case,\u00a0Hamdi v. Rumsfeld<\/em>, which questioned the U.S. Government\u2019s ability to detain\u00a0a citizen as an\u00a0alleged\u00a0enemy combatant indefinitely without counsel,\u00a0charges,\u00a0or trial.\u00a0Himsel listened, asked more questions, and he prodded.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cNow that you\u2019ve stated your position, let\u2019s flip you around,\u201d he said to one student. \u201cMake the case for the government. I\u2019m asking you to wrestle with this for a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Himsel also had an ace up his sleeve. Sitting just to his left was\u00a0Erwin\u00a0Chemerinsky,\u00a0Dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law<\/a> and the first person to argue a case on behalf\u00a0of\u00a0Guantanamo detainees.<\/p>\n

\"Erwin<\/a>
Erwin Chemerinsky at Wabash College on April 16, 2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

This was first-person source material,\u00a0and the relevance was not lost on the students.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWith the case we were discussing today, and him being the first to set some of this in motion, it was really eye opening from a procedural aspect,\u201d said Justin Spurgeon \u201926, a political science major from New Albany, Indiana, as class let out. \u201cHe had awesome insights. For him to be here was a blessing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

The discussion continued with Himsel guiding and Chemerinsky adding helpful details, hands continue to go up, the dialogue\u00a0is constant. At one point, Chemerinsky explains how everything was difficult, logistics, trust, rapport, and delays.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

When claims of executive privilege come up, Chemerinsky added, \u201cThat\u2019s what I fought hardest against.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Every student participates, some repeatedly. As the group gets deeper into the case, a discussion of the balance of individual rights vs.\u00a0the government’s power to fight terrorism\u00a0ensues.<\/p>\n\n

Guys deliberately consider points and ask questions, each one adding to the experience without trying to own it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe students were dazzlingly impressive,\u201d Chemerinsky said, \u201cand I admired the craft with which Professor Himsel conducted the class, how he got all the students participate in the level of sophistication of the discussion. Especially in that last turn around the table, practically everybody raised their hand to speak. I aspire to that when I’m teaching a seminar. Rarely can I achieve what he did today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Spurgeon returned the compliment.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThose are the kinds of discussions we aim for every day,\u201d he said. \u201cDean Chemerinsky definitely added to it by being here. For the guy who started this to be here today was just awesome. It was my favorite day of class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

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\u201cTell me what you know about Mr. Hamdi,\u201d came the opening directive from Professor Scott Himsel to his constitutional law class on this Thursday morning. As the 19 students sitting around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/04\/Chemerinsky_8911.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3868"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3882,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3868\/revisions\/3882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}