Constitutional Rights Sourcebook - Hardcover

Renstrom, Peter G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1576070611 ISBN 13: 9781576070611

Publisher: ABC-CLIO, 1999

Synopsis

The Constitutional Rights Sourcebook examines fundamental ideas of constitutionalism and American constitutional law through case summaries. The U.S. Supreme Court as an institution is featured and its rulings and rationale are represented throughout the work, beginning with a thorough treatment of the current court and including all the significant rulings since the mid-1980s.

About this title

About the Author

Peter G. Renstrom is professor of political science at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI.

Reviews

Gr 10 Up-An informed guide to the language and major decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court in the area of Constitutional rights. The first chapter provides background on the development of the Constitution and examines the Supreme Court's role in its interpretation. The chapters that follow present clear overviews of the amendments as well as closer looks at some specific cases and their significance. They provide an excellent examination of the history and current relevance of these landmark cases. The final chapter provides definitions and discussions of legal terms and phrases. Appendixes include the text of the U.S. Constitution, a list of the justices of the Supreme Court, and a record of the "Court Compositions since 1900." U.S. Court Cases (Salem, 1999) discusses the fundamental issues of the law, courts, and justice and presents brief descriptions of 212 court cases while Kermit Hall's The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (Oxford, 1992) is an alphabetical guide to its history and operation. The Constitutional Rights Sourcebook is unique in its focus on the individual amendments and its discussions of the evolution of decisions including those that reflect the current thinking of the Supreme Court.-Dana McDougald, Cedar Shoals High School, Athens, GA

Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Methodically and meticulously, Renstrom, a political science professor and constitutional law scholar, takes the reader through a comprehensive and thorough analysis of the individual rights and civil liberties guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Particular attention is focused on the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, which together form the bulwark of American liberties and the fountain from which they spring. Renstrom's unique approach is to index rights-based amendments in a user-friendly manner that enables the legal novice to pinpoint analysis and commentary via a process of stepwise refinement from general subtopics within each amendment to specific concepts that address key issues. Each concept is fully developed and discussed at the adversarial level, and the discussion is replete with references and analysis drawn from applicable case law. The evolution of legal concepts is traced from one era to another whenever social and political change beget or warrant judicial reinterpretation, as with the flag-burning controversy of the 1980s. A common theme is the dynamism and fluidity of a body of law that can change to meet the changing needs of an evolving society while still firmly maintaining and even strengthening fundamental rights and liberties. This book should find a home in a number of library settings, from public libraries serving the general public to academic libraries serving the needs of budding scholars.APhilip Young Blue, New York State Supreme Court Criminal Branch Lib., New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: ABC-CLIO
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1576070611
• ISBN 13: 9781576070611
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 792