Book Description

The Fourteenth Edition continues in, while aspiring to update and enhance, a proud tradition. This is a teaching book, with at least two features that distinguish it from other books. First, because the editors believe that students benefit from sustained engagement with Supreme Court opinions, pivotal cases are edited less substantially than in many other books. Second, because Constitutional Law is an argumentative practice situated in ongoing debates, this edition follows its predecessors in exposing students to diverse perspectives in the scholarly literature. By conjoining large chunks of Supreme Court analysis with diverse perspectives from the scholarly literature, this edition should furnish instructors with the resources to teach a broadly intellectual as well as a doctrinally sophisticated Constitutional Law course. Not insignificantly, the book also strives for evenhandedness. It imposes no overarching normative or conceptual vision that teachers must either embrace or "teach against." Publication of this edition occurs at a time of substantial flux in constitutional doctrine, a reflection of the appointment of four new Justices between 2017 and 2022. Accordingly, some revisions from prior editions stand out. For instance, Chapter 6, on Individual Rights, has been substantially revised in light of recent decisions concerning abortion and firearms. Chapter 8, on the Religion Clauses, includes important recent cases from both the Court's plenary and emergency dockets. Chapter 9, on Equal Protection, accurately depicts case law as this book goes to press, but major change could come in the wake of decisions by the Supreme Court in pending affirmative action cases.