American Constitutional Law

by Rossum, Ralph A.

• ISBN13: 9780813344775
• ISBN10: 0813344778
• Edition: 8th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-07-27
• Publisher: Westview Pr

Summary

American Constitutional Lawprovides a comprehensive account of the nation's defining document. Based on the premise that the study of the Constitution and constitutional law is of fundamental importance to understanding the principles, prospects, and problems of America, the text puts current events in terms of what those who initially drafted and ratified the Constitution sought to accomplish. Each volume examines the interpretations of a variety of sources, including the founding generation, the Supreme Court, lower federal courts and state judiciaries, and extrajudicial materials of constitutional significance (such as Congressional acts and resolutions).Volume I focuses on federal rights and powers, and is appropriate for the first semester in the two-semester course sequence in Constitutional Law. Volume II focuses on individuals' rights and responsibilities and is appropriate for the second semester in the two-semester course sequence in Constitutional Law, commonly called Civil Rights and Liberties.

Author Biography

Ralph A. Rossum is Salvatori Professor of American Constitutionalism and Director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College. He has written or cowritten eight books, including his most recent, The Jurisprudence of Antonin Scalia (Univ. of Kansas Press, 2006). He has served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Deputy Director of its Bureau of Justice Statistics and as a board member of its National Institute of Corrections.

G. Alan Tarr is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for State Constitutional Studies, Rutgers University, Camden. He is author of 12 books, including his forthcoming Without Fear or Favor: Judicial Independence and Judicial Accountability in the American States (Stanford UP) and Judicial Process and Judicial Policymaking, 5e (Wadsworth). He has served as a constitutional consultant in Brazil, Burma, Cyprus, Russia, and South Africa. Three times an NEH Fellow, he is currently editor of a fifty-volume reference series on state constitutions.