The Kentucky State Constitution provides an outstanding constitutional and historical account of the state's governing charter. In addition to an overview of Kentucky'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, including a discussion of Kentucky's previous three constitutions. This treatment, along with a table of cases, index, and bibliographic essay, provides an unsurpassed reference guide for students, scholars, and practitioners of Kentucky's constitution.
The cornerstone of the American republic is an educated, active, and engaged citizenry; however, the multifaceted inner workings of government and the political forces that shape it are incredibly complex. Kentucky Government, Politics, and Public Policy is the first book in nearly three decades to provide a comprehensive overview of the commonwealth's major governing and political institutions and the public policy issues that profoundly affect Kentuckians' daily lives. In this groundbreaking volume, editors James C. Clinger and Michael W. Hail have assembled respected scholars from across the state to inform citizens about their governing institutions, the consequences of their policy choices, and the intricacies of the political process. They provide clear and authoritative information on Kentucky's government and explain significant trends and patterns, exploring the legacy of the state's political history and illuminating the contributions of influential Kentucky politicians such as Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, and Jefferson Davis. The contributors also address essential topics such as the structure and function of the three branches of government, the constitution, and federalism and intergovernmental relations, as well as administration, budgeting, and finance. They analyze key issues in education policy, economic and community development, and health care in great detail, explaining persistently controversial topics such as campaign finance, the cost of elections, ethics, and the oversight of regulatory agencies. From the executive branch to the legislature, from the court system to political parties, there is no better primer on government in the commonwealth.
Explore the controversial legal history of the formation of the United States Prestatehood Legal Materials is your one-stop guide to the history and development of law in the U.S. and the change from territory to statehood. Unprecedented in its coverage of territorial government, this book identifies a wide range of available resources from each state to reveal the underlying legal principles that helped form the United States. In this unique publication, a state expert compiles each chapter using his or her own style, culminating in a diverse sourcebook that is interesting as well as informative. In Prestatehood Legal Materials, you will find bibliographies, references, and discussion on a varied list of source materials, including: state codes drafted by Congress county, state, and national archives journals and digests state and federal reports, citations, surveys, and studies books, manuscripts, papers, speeches, and theses town and city records and documents Web sites to help your search for more information and more Prestatehood Legal Materials provides you with brief overviews of state histories from colonization to acceptance into the United States. In this book, you will see how foreign countries controlled the laws of these territories and how these states eventually broke away to govern themselves. The text also covers the legal issues with Native Americans, inter-state and the Mexico and Canadian borders, and the development of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state government. This guide focuses on materials that are readily available to historians, political scientists, legal scholars, and researchers. Resources that assist in locating not-so-easily accessible materials are also covered. Special sections focus on the legal resources of colonial New York City and Washington, DC—which is still technically in its prestatehood stage. Due to the enormity of this project, the editor of Prestatehood Legal Materials created a Web page where updates, corrections, additions and more will be posted.
2017 INDIE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD FINALIST "A rallying cry . . . Everyone who is concerned about the welfare of all species, including human beings. Please read this important book." --Richard Louv, chairman emeritus of the Children & Nature Network and author of LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS and THE NATURE PRINCIPLE The Constitutional Change We Need to Protect Our Priceless Natural Resources For decades, activists have relied on federal and state legislation to fight for a cleaner environment. And for decades, they've been fighting a losing battle. The sad truth is, our laws are designed to accommodate pollution rather than prevent it. It's no wonder people feel powerless when it comes to preserving the quality of their water, air, public parks, and special natural spaces. But there is a solution, argues veteran environmentalist Maya K. van Rossum: bypass the laws and turn to the ultimate authority--our state and federal constitutions. In 2013, van Rossum and her team won a watershed legal victory that not only protected Pennsylvania communities from ruthless frackers but affirmed the constitutional right of people in the state to a clean and healthy environment. Following this victory, van Rossum inaugurated the Green Amendment movement, dedicated to empowering every American community to mobilize for constitutional change. Now, with The Green Amendment, van Rossum lays out an inspiring new agenda for environmental advocacy, one that will finally empower people, level the playing field, and provide real hope for communities everywhere. Readers will discover how legislative environmentalism has failed communities across America, the transformational difference environmental constitutionalism can make, the economic imperative of environmental constitutionalism, and how to take action in their communities. We all have the right to pure water, clean air, and a healthy environment. It's time to claim that right--for our own sake and that of future generations.
The little understood yet great power of impeachment lodged in the Congress is dissected in this text through history by Raoul Berger, a leading scholar on the subject. He sheds new light on whether impeachment is limited to indictable crimes, on whether there is jurisdiction to impeach for misconduct outside office, and on whether impeachment must precede indictment. Berger also finds firm footing in contesting the views of one-time Judge Robert Bork and President Nixon's lawyer, James St Clair.
Penny M. Miller takes a comprehensive approach to Kentucky politics and government. She uses the details of the state's political institutions and processes, its policy issues, and its place in national politics to demonstrate the tension between Kentucky's forces of change and its inertia. Since the Civil War, geographic, economic, and cultural factional divisions have dominated the struggle for progress in the Bluegrass state. Yet Kentucky is in a state of change, and its political institutions have undergone significant transformations in the last few decades. Miller points out that the state's judicial system, long one of the nation's least-altered, has recently become one of its most innovative; the educational system has undergone radical legislative reformation, trying to escape its near last-place national ranking. The legislative branch has gained more independence and autonomy, and its relationship to the executive branch has experienced an enormous readjustment. The state has emerged from its past stereotypes of bourbon, fast horses, burley tobacco, and coal mines. Some things endure, though--political corruption, voter apathy, and an aged constitution. This book, the only comprehensive study of politics and government in Kentucky, illuminates contemporary problems within their historical context and suggests how the state's institutions, policies, politics, and people will formulate the future of Kentucky.
According to the traditional understanding of American constitutional law, the Revolution produced a new conception of the constitution as a set of restrictions on the power of the state rather than a mere description of governmental roles. Daniel J. Hulsebosch complicates this viewpoint by arguing that American ideas of constitutions were based on British ones and that, in New York, those ideas evolved over the long eighteenth century as New York moved from the periphery of the British Atlantic empire to the center of a new continental empire. Hulsebosch explains how colonists and administrators reconfigured British legal sources to suit their needs in an expanding empire. In this story, familiar characters such as Alexander Hamilton and James Kent appear in a new light as among the nation's most important framers, and forgotten loyalists such as Superintendent of Indian Affairs Sir William Johnson and lawyer William Smith Jr. are rightly returned to places of prominence. In his paradigm-shifting analysis, Hulsebosch captures the essential paradox at the heart of American constitutional history: the Revolution, which brought political independence and substituted the people for the British crown as the source of legitimate authority, also led to the establishment of a newly powerful constitution and a new postcolonial genre of constitutional law that would have been the envy of the British imperial agents who had struggled to govern the colonies before the Revolution.
