Political factors influence judicial decisions. Arguments and input from lawyers and interest groups, shifting public opinion, and the ideological and behavioral inclinations of the justices collectively influence the development of constitutional doctrine. In
Constitutional Law for a Changing America, bestselling authors Lee Epstein, Kevin T. McGuire, and Thomas G. Walker draw on both political science and legal studies to analyze and excerpt cases, accounting for recent landmark court decisions, including key opinions handed down through the 2020 term.
Updated with additional material such as recent court rulings, more than 500 supplemental cases, and greater coverage of freedom of expression, this
Eleventh Edition will develop students’ understanding of how the U.S. Constitution protects civil rights and liberties.
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Lee Epstein (PhD, Emory University) is the University Professor of Law & Political Science and the Hilliard Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Southern California. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Political and Social Science. A recipient of 12 grants from the National Science Foundation, Epstein has authored or co-authored more than 100 articles and essays and 18 books. She is currently co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Judicial Behaviour. Professor Epstein’s empirical research is frequently cited in the New York Times, among other news media.
Kevin T. McGuire (PhD, The Ohio State University) is Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A former Fulbright Scholar at Trinity College, Dublin, he is the author of Understanding the U.S. Supreme Court: Cases and Controversies and The Supreme Court Bar: Legal Elites in the Washington Community. He is the editor of New Directions in Judicial Politics, and coeditor, with Kermit L. Hall, of Institutions of American Democracy: The Judiciary.
Thomas G. Walker (PhD, University of Kentucky) is the Goodrich C. White Professor Emeritus at Emory University, where he won several teaching awards for his courses on constitutional law and the judicial process. His book A Court Divided, written with Deborah J. Barrow, won the prestigious V. O. Key Award for the best book on Southern politics. He is the author of Eligible for Execution and coauthor of The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments, 7th Edition, with Lee Epstein, Jeffrey A. Segal, and Harold J. Spaeth.
