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Description
American Constitutional Law provides a comprehensive account of the nation’s defining document. Based on the premise that the study of the Constitution and constitutional law is of fundamental importance to understanding the principles, prospects, and problems of America, this text puts current events in terms of what those who initially drafted and ratified the Constitution sought to accomplish. The authors examine the constitutional thought of the founders, as well as interpretations of the Constitution by the Supreme Court, Congress, the President, lower federal courts, and state judiciaries. Now fully updated, the eighth edition of this classic volume focuses on individuals’ rights and responsibilities and incorporates nine new cases, including
District of Columbia v. Heller,
In re Marriage Cases,
Kennedy v. Louisiana, and
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1.
Also available in its eighth edition from authors Ralph A. Rossum and G. Alan Tarr:
American Constitutional Law, Volume I: The Structure of Government (Westview Press, ISBN 978–0-8133–4477–5) and
American Constitutional Law: Two-Volume Set (Westview Press, ISBN 978–0-8133–4479–9).
Ralph A. Rossum is Henry Salvatori Professor of American Constitutionalism and Director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author of several books, including
Antonin Scalia's Jurisprudence (2006), and has served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Deputy Director of its Bureau of Justice Statistics and as a board member of its National Institute of Corrections.
G. Alan Tarr is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University, Camden. He is the author of several books, including
Judicial Process and Judicial Policymaking (2010), and has served as a constitutional consultant in Brazil, Burma, Cyprus, Russia, and South Africa. Three times an NEH Fellow, he is currently editor of a fifty-volume reference series on state constitutions.
About the Authors
Ralph A. Rossum is Henry Salvatori Professor of American Constitutionalism and Director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author of several books, including Antonin Scalia's Jurisprudence (2006), and has served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Deputy Director of its Bureau of Justice Statistics and as a board member of its National Institute of Corrections.
G. Alan Tarr is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University, Camden. He is the author of several books, including Judicial Process and Judicial Policymaking (2010), and has served as a constitutional consultant in Brazil, Burma, Cyprus, Russia, and South Africa. Three times an NEH Fellow, he is currently editor of a fifty-volume reference series on state constitutions.
Praise for Previous Editions:
"An excellent two-volume Constitutional Law case book with sophisticated introductions.”
-Saul Brenner, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
"Its greatest strengths are threefold. First, the case excerpts are ideal for undergraduate students who are being exposed to the reading of case law for the first time and who are not familiar with legal nomenclature. … The second great virtue of the book is that the introductory sections of each chapter, which precede the case law, succinctly summarize the law, history, and politics related to the cases that students are about to encounter. These introductions do an excellent job setting the context for the case law. … The third great virtue of the R & T text is that the editors do as good a job as any constitutional law text tying the case law to what the framers of the constitutional provisions at issue had to say. This allows students to understand the original meaning of the Constitution in a way they might seldom appreciate with other textbooks that disregard or object to such approaches to constitutional law."
-Anthony A. Peacock, Utah State University
1. INTERPRETATION OF THE CONSTITUTION
Approaches to Constitutional Interpretation
The Approaches in Perspective
The Ends of the Constitution
The Means to the Ends
2. CONSTITUTIONAL ADJUDICATION
The Justices of the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court in the Federal Judicial System
How Cases Get to the Supreme Court
How the Supreme Court Decides Cases
The Impact of Supreme Court Decisions
Analyzing Supreme Court Decisions
Sources in Constitutional Law
3. RIGHTS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION
Rights and the Founding
The Fourteenth Amendment
Due Process and the Bill of Rights
Rights During Wartime and Other Emergencies
The Second Amendment
CASES
Barron v. Baltimore (1833)
Palko v. Connecticut (1937)
Adamson v. California (1947)
Duncan v. Louisiana (1968)
Ex parte Milligan (1866)
Korematsu v. United States (1944)
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004)
Boumediene v. Bush (2008)
District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)
4. ECONOMIC DUE PROCESS AND THE TAKINGS CLAUSE
The Fourteenth Amendment
The Evisceration (and Possible Recent Restoration?) of the Privileges or Immunities Clause
Economic Regulation and the Rise of Substantive Due Process
The Demise of Substantive Due Process in the Economic Realm
Punitive Damages: An Exception to the Demise of Substantive Due Process in the Economic Realm?
The Emergence of Substantive Due Process in the Civil Liberties Realm
The Takings Clause
CASES
The Slaughter-House Cases (1873)
Saenz v. Roe (1999)
Munn v. Illinois (1877)
Lochner v. New York (1905)
West Coast Hotel Company v. Parrish (1937)
Williamson v. Lee Optical Company (1955)
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Campbell (2003)
United States v. Carolene Products Company (1938)
Kelo v. City of New London (2005)
Nollan v. California Coastal Commission (1987)
Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council (1992)
Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council, Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (2002)
Dolan v. City of Tigard (1994)
5. FREEDOM OF SPEECH, PRESS, AND ASSOCIATION
The Meaning of the First Amendment
First Amendment Standards
Political Expression
The Regulation of Speech and Association
Restraints on the Press
Libel and Invasion of Privacy
Obscenity
CASES
Gitlow v. New York (1925)
Schenck v. United States (1919)
Dennis v. United States (1951)
Barenblatt v. United States (1959)
Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)
McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003)
Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000)
Texas v. Johnson (1989)
R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul (1992)
Hill v. Colorado (2000)
Near v. Minnesota (1931)
New York Times Company v. United States (1971)
Branzburg v. Hayes (1972)
Memorandum Opinion and Order, Federal Communications Commission (1987)
New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)
Miller v. California / Paris Adult Theater I v. Slaton (1973)
Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997)
Indianapolis Anti-Pornography Ordinance (1984)
6. FREEDOM OF RELIGION
Establishment of Religion
Free Exercise of Religion
Reconciling the Religion Clauses
Trends and Prospects
CASES
Everson v. Board of Education (1947)
School District of Abington Township v. Schempp (1963)
Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)
Wallace v. Jaffree (1985)
Lee v. Weisman (1992)
McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union (2005)
Van Orden v. Perry (2005)
Rosenberger v. University of Virginia (1995)
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002)
West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)
Sherbert v. Verner (1963)
Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988)
Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith (1990)
City of Boerne v. Flores, Archbishop of San Antonio (1997)
7. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
The Ex Post Facto Clauses
Search and Seizure
Self-Incrimination and Coerced Confessions
Due Process of Law
The Right to Counsel
The Insanity Defense
The Entrapment Defense
Trial by Jury
The Right to a Speedy Trial
The Right to Confrontation
Plea Bargaining
Bail and Pretrial Detention
Cruel and Unusual Punishments
Prisoners’ Rights
Retroactive Application of Criminal Procedure Guarantees
Basic Themes in the Court’s Criminal Procedure Decisions
CASES
Stogner v. California (2003)
Smith v. Doe (2003)
Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls (2002)
Indianapolis v. Edmond (2000)
Mapp v. Ohio (1961)
Olmstead v. United States (1928)
Katz v. United States (1967)
Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
Dickerson v. United States (2000)
Nix v. Williams (1984)
Connecticut Department of Public Safety v. Doe (2003)
Powell v. Alabama (1932)
Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
Clark v. Arizona (2006)
Jacobson v. United States (1992)
Blakely v. Washington (2004)
Davis v. Washington (2006)
Gregg v. Georgia (1976)
Roper v. Simmons (2005)
Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008)
Harmelin v. Michigan (1991)
Ewing v. California (2003)
8. THE EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
Race and the Founding
Racial Desegregation
Private Discrimination and the Concept of State Action
Racial Discrimination in Jury Trials
Racial Discrimination in Prisons
Proof of Discrimination: Impact Versus Intent
CASES
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Bolling v. Sharpe (1954)
Brown v. Board of Education (1955)
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971)
Milliken v. Bradley (1974)
United States v. Fordice (1992)
Missouri v. Jenkins (1995)
Shelley v. Kraemer (1948)
Moose Lodge No. 107 v. Irvis (1972)
Georgia v. McCollum (1992)
Johnson v. California (2005)
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio (1989)
The Civil Rights Act of 1991
9. SUBSTANTIVE EQUAL PROTECTION
The Two-Tier Approach
The Development of an Intermediate Level of Review
Suspect Classifications
Fundamental Rights
The Future of Equal Protection Analysis
CASES
Richmond v. Croson Company (1989)
Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena (1995)
Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)
Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007)
Foley v. Connelie (1978)
Trimble v. Gordon (1977)
Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia (1976)
Frontiero v. Richardson (1973)
United States v. Virginia (1996)
Rostker v. Goldberg (1981)
Shapiro v. Thompson (1969)
San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973)
Nordlinger v. Hahn (1992)
10. VOTING AND REPRESENTATION
Equal Protection and the Right to Vote
Race and Representation: The Fifteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act
CASES
Wesberry v. Sanders (1964)
Reynolds v. Sims (1964)
Vieth v. Jubelirer (2004)
Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections (1966)
Dunn v. Blumstein (1972)
Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (2008)
Bush v. Gore (2000)
Katzenbach v. Morgan (1966)
Thornburg v. Gingles (1986)
Shaw v. Reno (1993)
League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry (2006)
11. THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY
The Constitutional Basis
What the Right to Privacy Protects
Qualifications on the Right to Privacy
Privacy and the Right to Die
CASES
Troxel v. Granville (2000)
Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
Roe v. Wade (1973)
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992)
Gonzales v. Carhart (2007)
Lawrence v. Texas (2003)
In re Marriage Cases (2008)
Defense of Marriage Act of 1996
Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health (1990)
Washington v. Glucksberg (1997)
Vacco v. Quill (1997)
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT
GLOSSARY OF COMMON LEGAL TERMS
TABLE OF CASES
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