Constitutional Law Textbook: Comprehensive Version (Aspen College)

Thematic organization develops students' understanding of and engagement with structural and normative features of the Constitution and Constitutional Law by linking relevant portions of the Constitution to contemporary issues and controversies while providing key historical elements to deepen and contextualize that understanding. Extensive excerpts from a highly focused set of cases and other readings provide depth of understanding and a compelling, nuanced sense of the Constitution and of the political and interpretive disputes, including the basis and nature of judicial authority, that have shaped its meaning. Chapter structure offers, first, the author's overview of the topic, constitutional arguments, and chapter readings, and then a broad range of theoretical and historical writings that contextualize the cases that follow. A wide scope and perspective comprises both basic topics of Constitutional Law and provocative topics of current interest--for example, military detention and gender, sexual orientation, and racial equality--not normally included in Constitutional Law texts but that through ongoing controversy and relevance engage student interest and stimulate discussion. A multidimensional, comprehensive picture, drawing on a wide array of resources including case excerpts, concurring and dissenting opinions, law journal and other articles, general publications, published letters, and other documents. Probing case comprehension, discussion, and synthesis questions punctuate and reinforce content. As is usual for the Constitutional Law market, splits of the comprehensive text, with added materials, will be offered, to be available at a later date: Rights and Liberties and Governmental Powers and Institutions.