Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials, Third Edition

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Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials, Third Editionis structured for a three- to five-hour introductory course in Constitutional Law. Coverage includes a review of the power of the three coordinate branches of the federal government with particular emphasis on the Federal and Supreme Courts.

Constitutional Law: Cases and Materialsemphasizes Individual Rights and includes Application of the Bill of Rights and the fundamental rights to Due Process, both substantive and procedural, as well as Equal Protection. First Amendment issues are not included: this casebook is meant for use in programs that offer separate First Amendment course.

Professors and students will benefit from:

• Strong emphasis on civil rights and the Fourteenth Amendment including more extensive coverage of slavery, segregation, and civil rights and a very “realist view” of the role the Supreme Court has played from slavery to present.
• Structuring of Article III jurisdictional requirements as they are affected by a given subject matter in relation to how the judicial power should be applied in a democratic society.
• Beginning with a “mini course” in Supreme Court decision making and using the controversy generated by the “privacy and abortion cases” to show how actual case law is affected by the “weak origins” of judicial review and the conflict in the need to limit governmental power (the Constitution as fundamental law) by a non-elected Court in a democratic society.
• Allowing students to understand how the substantive contemporary controversies in the subject matter affect how the Court applies the judicial power.  
• Preparing the student to understand how the use of the case and controversy requirements in Article III are applied to restrain the judicial power and bow to the democratic process, as exemplified by the “historic” privacy cases.
• Providing the students exposure to some of the classic articles dealing with these issues in order to benefit their understanding of the subject matter.

New to the Third Edition:

The authors have updated material and included information on new developments in:

• The Pre-emption Doctrine
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Federalism
• Presidential Power (including the Unitary Executive Theory)
• Post Shelby v. Holder Voting Rights
• Redistricting
• Second Amendment right to bear arms
• Abortion Rights