Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813347459 ISBN 13: 9780813347455

Publisher: Routledge, 2013

The study of the Constitution and constitutional law is of fundamental importance to understanding the principles, prospects, and problems of America. American Constitutional Law, Volume I provides a comprehensive account of the nation's defining document, comparing how its provisions were originally understood by those who drafted and ratified it with contemporary constructions. 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 to provide students with a sense of how the law has been interpreted over the years.

Now fully updated, the ninth edition of this classic volume features several new cases including National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, Arizona v. United States, and Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Company

Visit westviewconlaw.com for instructor resources, including recently decided cases, material from prior editions, and a glossary.

About the Author:

Ralph A. Rossum is Salvatori Professor of American Constitutionalism at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author or coauthor of ten books, including his most recent, The Supreme Court and Tribal Gaming. He has served in the U.S. Department of Justice and as a board member of its National Institute of Corrections. He currently serves on the California Advisory Committee of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

G. Alan Tarr is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for State Constitutional Studies, Rutgers University, Camden. He is author of 12 books, including his most recent Without Fear or Favor. He 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.

Review:

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