The first-year sequence of classes generally assumes that the law, by virtue of being the law, encourages justice or creates a neutral consistency in its application. Critical race theory, just as other critical legal studies disciplines, starts from the idea that this may not be true, focusing on the ways in which racial stratification has been, and continues to be, built into the legal framework that exists in the United States. This course traces the roots of critical race theory from its theoretical forerunners to its application in the modern day, even as the term itself is being used as an amorphous threat by those who would seek to perpetuate the very racial stratification studied by critical race theory.