Cailin Semro

Cailin Semro is a senior majoring in Political Science and minoring in Global Studies. She is completing a departmental honors thesis on John Locke’s liberalism and its influence on federal constitutional opinions after 1937 due to her interest in pursuing a career in law. When analyzing Locke’s connection to constitutional thought, scholars tend to focus on the Founding Era and the Second Treatise and exclude constitutional opinions. Cailin aims to address these gaps in her thesis. Her research analyzes Locke’s Second Treatise of Government and Letter Concerning Toleration to create a new definition of Lockean liberalism that looks beyond the concepts of “life, liberty, and property.” Since 1937, over 50 cases addressed constitutional matters—such as the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 14th Amendments—while citing Locke in some manner to address potential disputes between community and individual rights. Cailin is analyzing those opinions to understand how Lockean liberalism connects to constitutional ideology and shapes modern constitutional rights. She hypothesizes that Lockean liberalism prevails in constitutional thought when the federal court faces questions regarding individual and community rights, showing that Locke’s philosophy is one of the most persistent philosophies in the Constitution and creating a new definition of Lockean liberalism. After graduating from UCLA, Cailin plans to attend law school and pursue a career in appellate or international law.