Contemporary Cases in Women's Rights

Contemporary Cases in Women’s Rights is an introduction to the most important recent court decisions affecting women in the United States.  Abortion, sexual harassment, pornography, surrogate motherhood, rape, custody rights—the legal and social questions surrounding these issues all come to life through excerpts of important U. S. Supreme Court and lower court cases.  It is the only casebook on this topic geared to undergraduates and can be read on its own or used with Goldstein’s more historically comprehensive casebook, The Constitutional Rights of Women.
    Assuming that the reader has no previous knowledge of law, Leslie Friedman Goldstein explains the background of each case, examining the complex moral, social, and legal problems addressed by the courts.  Discussion questions at the end of each case help students consider the issues.  An explanation of how the Supreme Court works and the text of the U.S. Constitution are included as appendices to provide students with general background on the United States legal system

Leslie Friedman Goldstein is professor of political science at the University of Delaware.  She is the author of The Constitutional Rights of Women, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press.