Constitutional Law, Fifth Edition

by Geoffrey R. Stone, Cass R. Sunstein, Louis Michael Seidman

Book Overview

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 073555014X
• ISBN13: 9780735550148
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Aspen Publishers
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 5.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.5" x 7.3" x 10.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent service!

I paid extra for expedited shipping and received the book within 2 days of placing the order. Thank you so much for such fast delivery.

Excellent Structural Overview

The objective of this text is to illustrate the role of the Supreme Court as one of three co-equal policy-making bodies in the U.S. government. It performs this function in an exemplary manner. The reason my professor chose the text is because of the flow and sequence of information and cases. The idea is to help students understand how the Supreme Court came to its current role in U.S. governmental structure. Specific details on cases, if students are interested in additional case text, are always available online. However, the purpose of the text never was to create a comprehensive text of casework, but rather, to create an understanding of the significant developments in the role and power of the Court. This is an excellent text. Relevant History The civil war began on April 12, 1861 when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. 13th Amendment - abolition of slavery 1865 14th State and National citizenship 1868 (Amendment corrected the 1857 Dred Scott v Sandford case - Scott was not a citizen of Missouri within the meaning of the Constitution and not entitled to sue in its courts, p. 455) 15th Right to Vote not abridged by race 1870 19th Right to Vote not abridged by gender 1920 Preamble - The U.S. government is a tripartite system - of three co-equal policy-making bodies. Court's power is its legitimacy; the persuasive power of logic in its arguments, stare decisis contributes to its legitimacy. We studied three cases where the Supreme Court overturned its previous decisions. 1954 Brown v. Board of Education (separate is inherently unequal) which overturned 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson (separate but equal is okay). 2004 Vieth v Jubelirer "We overrule that case (Brandemer) and decline to adjudicate these political gerrymandering claims." Davis v. Brandemer 1986, Supreme Court held that gerrymandering cases are justiciable, but could not agree on a standard to adjudicate them. Week 1 Constitution Articles I - III, pp. xliii-1 Origins of the U.S. Constitution, pp. 8-14 1803 Marbury v. Madison, pp 29-42 Pg 35 - It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases, must of necessity expound and interpret that rule. If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each. 1816 Martin v. Hunter's Lessee pp. 51-57 property Brit problem 1958 Cooper v. Aaron, pp 57-61 Arkansas failed to comply with district court order for desegregation, saying it would lead to undue violence and disorder and that those consequences justified disobedience of the decree. The Supreme Court wrote: Article VI of the Constitution makes the Constitution the "supreme Law of the Land." In 1803, Chief Justice Marshall, speaking for a unanimous Court, referring to the Constitutional as the "Fundamental and paramount law of the nation

A Review

Book was fine, a little worse than they described but I don't mind the highlighting and writing inside so its fine.

So much cheaper than the 2005 edition

If you are buying this, I assume you are buying because you have to for class. In that case you will likely have noticed that the current edition is vastly more expensive and came out only 2 years after this edition. How much could the law change in 2 years? Is it false economy to scrimp on the books when you are paying through the teeth for law school already? Here I attempt to answer these questions. I used this edition of the book rather than the 2005 edition for both Con Law 1 and 2. The changes from this edition to the newer one were minor. In Con Law 1, I had to pull two new cases off FindLaw and only had to pull one new case for Con Law 2. Other than that the books were similar and most assigned readings were word for word the same between editions. An added bonus was that the professors for both classes have been teaching the subject for years, and in the three sections that were significantly different both tended to teach focused on the older edition. In one class, the previous edition had an older case which had been replaced by the Gore Bush election recount case (an added case). The older case had been shortened to a note, but the professor elaborated on it. Not only was I not lost for using the older book - I had an edge. I highly recommend economizing by buying the older book in this case. Constitutional law does not change frequently, and this did not disadvantage me. And to quell any doubts, I scored in the top third for both classes.

Reasonable - Good Historical Materials

I've had cause to study this book a little for a course in Constitutional Problems at the University of Western Australia. Inevitably - while my requirements cannot be as detailed or exhaustive as that of my American friends, I found it a useful guide to the major cases and enjoyed the historical references. I particularly enjoyed the Race and the Constitution (equality and 14th amendment stuff) chapter and the dicussion of the case law preceding Brown v. Board of Education.