State Constitutional Law
State Constitutional Law

Author: Robert Forrest Williams

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781630435868

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State Constitutional Law is designed to provide the basis for a lively and exciting two- or three-credit course in an area of law that has become increasingly important to a variety of law practices. Now, more than ever, lawyers, judges and law professors are discovering the importance of state constitutions and the judicial interpretations of these constitutions. A major focus of the book is the substantial differences between detailed the state constitutions and the more-familiar brief federal constitution that was the focus of the students' Constitutional Law course. The new edition of State Constitutional Law follows the basic structure and philosophy of earlier editions. The text explores the many common themes that appear in the body of constitutional law of all states, but also focuses on the importance of the unique history, language and judicial understanding of each state's constitution in resolving particular issues, including the political context in which state constitutions have evolved; the popular participation in the processes of state constitutional change; the individual rights provisions that have no federal parallel; the wide range of policy matters that are entrenched in state constitutions rather than ordinary statutes, and the motivations for using this unusual method of "lawmaking"; the roles of each of the departments of state government and the way in which separation of powers doctrines may operate quite differently at the state level; and the variety of processes, including judicial review, of state constitutional change and amendment. Major elements of state constitutional law such as education, local government and finance and taxation are accorded separate chapters. In addition, State Constitutional Law remains an important one-volume resource for practitioners and academics on virtually all aspects of American state constitutions. Among the changes in the new edition are: Extended discussion of the issue of same-sex marriage under state constitutions; Revised and expanded discussion of issues concerning the federal-state relationship; Updated cases and scholarly commentary on individual rights and separation of powers issues; Expanded focus on state constitutional positive rights, in contrast to the federal constitution's negative rights; New and revised Notes and Questions in nearly every section of the book.

Great Cases in Constitutional Law
Great Cases in Constitutional Law

Author: Robert P. George

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2016-03-04

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1400882729

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Slavery, segregation, abortion, workers' rights, the power of the courts. These issues have been at the heart of the greatest constitutional controversies in American history. And in this concise and thought-provoking volume, some of today's most distinguished legal scholars and commentators explain for a general audience how five landmark Supreme Court cases centered on those controversies shaped the country's destiny and continue to affect us even now. The book is a profound exploration of the Supreme Court's importance to America's social and political life. It is also, as many of the contributors show, an intriguing reflection of what some have seen as an important trend in legal scholarship away from an uncritical belief in the essentially benign nature of judicial power. Robert George opens with an illuminating survey of the themes that unite and divide the five cases. Other contributors then examine each case in detail through a lively commentary-and-response format. Mark Tushnet and Jeremy Waldron exchange views on Marbury v. Madison, the pivotal 1803 case that established the power of the courts to invalidate legislation. Cass Sunstein and James McPherson discuss Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), the notorious case that confirmed the rights of slaveowners, declared that black people could not be American citizens, and is often seen as a cause of the Civil War. Hadley Arkes and Donald Drakeman explore the legacy of Lochner v. New York (1905), a case that ushered in decades of judicial hostility to social welfare laws. Earl Maltz and Walter Murphy assess Brown v. Topeka Board of Education (1954), the famous case that ended racial segregation in public schools. Finally, Jean Bethke Elshtain and George Will tackle Roe v. Wade (1973), still a flashpoint a quarter of a century later in the debate over abortion. While some of the contributors show sympathy for strong judicial interventions on social issues, many across the ideological spectrum are sharply critical of judicial activism. A compelling introduction to the greatest cases in U.S. constitutional law, this is also an enlightening glimpse of the state of the art in American legal scholarship.

The Tenth Amendment and State Sovereignty
The Tenth Amendment and State Sovereignty

Author: Mark Robert Killenbeck

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9780742518803

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In the wake of the 2000 Election, the relationship between the Supreme Court and the American states has become more important. Once derided by the Supreme Court as a 'truism, ' the Tenth Amendment has in recent years been transformed from a neglected provision into a vital 'first principle.' As such, it has provided the foundation for a series of decisions in which the Supreme Court has elevated the status of the states, often at the expense of federal power and in the face of previously settled assumptions. In this important volume, four prominent scholars--two historians and two law professors--examine carefully one of the central tenets in the Supreme Court's recent Tenth Amendment jurisprudence: the assumption that the results fashioned by a narrow majority are compelled by history and consistent with the intentions of the framers. They shed important new light on a series of decisions that mark a major change in our thinking about the nature of a constitutional system within which both the federal government and the states properly regard themselves as sovereign entities.

Looking for Rights in All the Wrong Places
Looking for Rights in All the Wrong Places

Author: Emily Zackin

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2013-04-21

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 069115578X

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Unlike many national constitutions, which contain explicit positive rights to such things as education, a living wage, and a healthful environment, the U.S. Bill of Rights appears to contain only a long list of prohibitions on government. American constitutional rights, we are often told, protect people only from an overbearing government, but give no explicit guarantees of governmental help. Looking for Rights in All the Wrong Places argues that we have fundamentally misunderstood the American rights tradition. The United States actually has a long history of enshrining positive rights in its constitutional law, but these rights have been overlooked simply because they are not in the federal Constitution. Emily Zackin shows how they instead have been included in America's state constitutions, in large part because state governments, not the federal government, have long been primarily responsible for crafting American social policy. Although state constitutions, seemingly mired in trivial detail, can look like pale imitations of their federal counterpart, they have been sites of serious debate, reflect national concerns, and enshrine choices about fundamental values. Zackin looks in depth at the history of education, labor, and environmental reform, explaining why America's activists targeted state constitutions in their struggles for government protection from the hazards of life under capitalism. Shedding much-needed light on the variety of reasons that activists pursued the creation of new state-level rights, Looking for Rights in All the Wrong Places challenges us to rethink our most basic assumptions about the American constitutional tradition.

A Right to Lie?
A Right to Lie?

Author: Catherine J. Ross

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2021-11-30

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 0812253256

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Do the nation's highest officers, including the President, have a right to lie protected by the First Amendment? If not, what can be done to protect the nation under this threat? This book explores the various options.

The Cult of the Constitution
The Cult of the Constitution

Author: Mary Anne Franks

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2019-05-14

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 1503609103

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“A powerful challenge to the prevailing constitutional orthodoxy of the right and the left . . . A deeply troubling and absolutely vital book” (Mark Joseph Stern, Slate). In this provocative book, Mary Anne Franks examines the thin line between constitutional fidelity and constitutional fundamentalism. The Cult of the Constitution reveals how deep fundamentalist strains in both conservative and liberal American thought keep the Constitution in the service of white male supremacy. Franks demonstrates how constitutional fundamentalists read the Constitution selectively and self-servingly, thus undermining the integrity of the document as a whole. She goes on to argue that economic and civil libertarianism have merged to produce a deregulatory, “free-market” approach to constitutional rights that achieves fullest expression in the idealization of the Internet. The fetishization of the first and second amendments has blurred the boundaries between conduct and speech and between veneration and violence. But the Constitution itself contains the antidote to fundamentalism. The Cult of the Constitution lays bare the dark, antidemocratic consequences of constitutional fundamentalism and urges readers to take the Constitution seriously, not selectively.

The New York State Constitution
The New York State Constitution

Author: Peter J. Galie

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 0199778973

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The New York State Constitution provides an outstanding constitutional and historical account of the state's governing charter. In addition to an overview of New York's constitutional history, it provides an in-depth, section-by-section analysis of the entire constitution, detailing the many significant changes that have been made since its initial drafting. This treatment, along with a table of cases, index, and bibliography provides an unsurpassed reference guide for students, scholars, and practitioners of New York's constitution. Previously published by Greenwood, this title has been brought back in to circulation by Oxford University Press with new verve. Re-printed with standardization of content organization in order to facilitate research across the series, this title, as with all titles in the series, is set to join the dynamic revision cycle of The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States. The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States is an important series that reflects a renewed international interest in constitutional history and provides expert insight into each of the 50 state constitutions. Each volume in this innovative series contains a historical overview of the state's constitutional development, a section-by-section analysis of its current constitution, and a comprehensive guide to further research. Under the expert editorship of Professor G. Alan Tarr, Director of the Center on State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University, this series provides essential reference tools for understanding state constitutional law. Books in the series can be purchased individually or as part of a complete set, giving readers unmatched access to these important political documents.