United States Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Breyer talk about the Constitution with high school students and discuss why we have and need a constitution, what federalism is, how implicit and explicit rights are defined and how separation of powers ensures that no one branch of government obtains too much power.

This documentary begins by introducing the Constitution and why it was created. It then examines key Constitutional concepts -- separation of powers and individual rights -- by focusing on two landmark cases: Youngstown v. Sawyer, a challenge to President Truman's decision to put the steel mills under government control, and Gideon v. Wainwright, in which the Supreme Court establishes the right to be represented by an attorney.

Tells the personal story behind one of the most important and landmark first amendment cases in U.S. history, the case that established the separation of church and state in public schools. The film recounts what plaintiff Vashti McCollum later described as 'three years of headlines, headaches, and hatred', but which eventually led to a decision that still resonates in the church-state conflicts of today-- more than 60 years after the original decision in McCollum vs. Board of Education

Presents the role of Charles Hamilton Houston in the cases which led to the landmark Supreme Court case of Brown vs. Board of Education. Gives a history of segregation, Jim Crow Laws, the NAACP and biographical information on persons influential in the desegregation movement.

Women and the U.S. Constitution is about much more than the nineteenth amendment. This provocative volume incorporates law, history, political theory, and philosophy to analyze the U.S. Constitution as a whole in relation to the rights and fate of women. Divided into three parts--History, Interpretation, and Practice--this book views the Constitution as a living document, struggling to free itself from the weight of a two-hundred-year-old past and capable of evolving to include women and their concerns. Feminism lacks both a constitutional theory as well as a clearly defined theory of political legitimacy within the framework of democracy. The scholars included here take significant and crucial steps toward these theories. In addition to constitutional issues such as federalism, gender discrimination, basic rights, privacy, and abortion, Women and the U.S. Constitution explores other issues of central concern to contemporary women--areas that, strictly speaking, are not yet considered a part of constitutional law. Women's traditional labor and its unique character, and women and the welfare state, are two examples of topics treated here from the perspective of their potentially transformative role in the future development of constitutional law.

at WSU Vancouver
"In this provocative new account of the framing of the Constitution,David Brian Robertson observes that the Federalist Papers represented only one side in a fierce argument that was settled by compromise - in fact, multiple compromises. Drawing on numerous primary sources, Robertson unravels the highly political dynamics that shaped the document. Robertson examines each contentious debate, including arguments over the balance between the federal government and the states, slavery, war and peace, and much more."

Trace the roots of the concept of equal protection from the American Revolution and the formation of the Constitution through its application today using this collection of 177 primary documents from a variety of sources. Students can use this unique reference resource to examine the tension between the concept of equal protection and recognition of slavery in the constitutional order, to explore the devitalization and revitalization of the 14th and 15th Constitutional amendments from the era of Jim Crow through the Civil Rights movement, and to study current court rulings on equal protection of the law. Petitions, laws, court decisions, personal accounts, and a variety of other documents bring to life the experiences of African Americans in the American constitutional order. Five historical periods are explored with particular emphasis on the concept of equal protection of the law and its particular embodiment in the 14th Amendment. These include: the roots of the concept of equal protection in the Anglo-American experience, the lives of African Americans under a Constitution that incorporated equal protection yet recognized slavery, the 14th and 15th Amendments and the development of Jim Crow, 20th-century developments in the application of equal protection to race, and the accomplishments of the Civil Rights movement and developments since that time. The introductory and explanatory text helps readers understand the nature of the conflicts, the issues being litigated, and the social and cultural pressures that shaped each debate. This welcome resource will provide students with the opportunity to understand the various arguments put forth in different debates, encouraging readers to consider all sides when drawing their own conclusions.

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"Many have argued in recent years that the U.S. constitutional system exalts individual rights over responsibilities, virtues, and the common good. Answering the charges against liberal theories of rights, James Fleming and Linda McClain develop and defend a civic liberalism that takes responsibilities and virtues as well as rights seriously."

This vivid chronicle is the first in-depth, comprehensive history of the relationship between American Indians and the Bill of Rights, tracing developments and issues from earliest times to 1991. The book begins with a thorough examination of rights and legal status as perceived by Native Americans, addressing such topics as conduct and collective rights. Then "Retained by The People" recounts the various brutal forms of colonialism forced upon indigenous nations by Europeans and Americans through 1900. The book next gives a balanced and detailed analysis of twentieth-century events that have shaped Native American rights under the United States Constitution. The author, in devoting approximately three-fourths of the book to the history of twentieth-century legal developments, explores attacks on Indian culture in the 1920s, the empowerment of tribal governments during the thirties, and federal attempts at cultural and political liquidation through the forties, fifties, and sixties. Also included are the first detailed assessment of the 1968 Indian Bill of Rights and a complete narrative of Native American efforts toward achieving limited sovereignty and unlimited rights over the past three decades. "Retained by The People" will be vital to anyone interested in Native American history, U.S. legal history, or U.S. constitutional law.

"Hoffer offers a sweeping, dramatic narration of a crucial moment in Early American history. Over the course of five days in September 1787, five men serving on an ad hoc "Committee of Style and Arrangement" edited the draft of the federal Constitution at the Constitutional Convention, profoundly recasting the wording of the Preamble. In so doing, the committee changed a federation into a Union ..." publisher summary

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"Schulhofer spells out why the Fourth Amendment's protections from unwarranted government surveillance are as important as freedom of speech when it comes to liberties essential to sustain a democratic society." --Yale Kamisar, Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Michigan

While the United States was founded on abstract principles of certain "unalienable rights," its legal traditions are based in British common law, a fact long decried by progressive reformers. Common law, the complaint goes, ignores abstract rights principles in favor of tradition, effectively denying equality to large segments of the population. The nineteenth-century women's rights movement embraced this argument, claiming that common law rules of property and married women's status were at odds with the nation's commitment to equality. Conventional wisdom suggests that this tactic helped pave the way for voting rights and better jobs. In Constitutional Context, Kathleen S. Sullivan presents a fresh perspective. In revisiting the era’s congressional debates, state legislation, judicial opinions, news accounts, and work of political activists, Sullivan finds that the argument for universal, abstract rights was not the only, or best, path available for social change. Rather than erecting a new paradigm of absolute rights, she argues, women’s rights activists unwittingly undermined common law’s ability to redress grievances, contributing heavily to the social, cultural, and political stagnation that characterizes the place of women and the movement today. A challenging and thoughtful study of what is commonly thought of as an era of progress, Constitutional Context provides the groundwork for a more comprehensive understanding and interpretation of constitutional law.

In 1787, the American union was in disarray. The incompatible demands of the separate states threatened its existence; some states were even in danger of turning into the kind of tyranny they had so recently deposed. A truly national government was needed, one that could raise money, regulate commerce, and defend the states against foreign threats–without becoming as overbearing as England. So thirty-six-year-old James Madison believed. That summer, the Virginian was instrumental in organizing the Constitutional Convention, in which one of the world’s greatest documents would be debated, created, and signed. Inspired by a sense of history in the making, he kept the most extensive notes of any attendee.Now two esteemed scholars have made these minutes accessible to everyone. Presented with modern punctuation and spelling, judicious cuts, and helpful notes–plus fascinating background information on every delegate and an overview of the tumultuous times–here is the great drama of how the Constitution came to be, from the opening statements to the final votes. This Modern Library Paperback Classic also includes an Introduction and appendices from the authors.

The successful creation of the Constitution is a suspense story. The Summer of 1787 takes us into the sweltering room in which delegates struggled for four months to produce the flawed but enduring document that would define the nation -- then and now.

George Washington presided, James Madison kept the notes, Benjamin Franklin offered wisdom and humor at crucial times. The Summer of 1787 traces the struggles within the Philadelphia Convention as the delegates hammered out the charter for the world's first constitutional democracy. Relying on the words of the delegates themselves to explore the Convention's sharp conflicts and hard bargaining, David O. Stewart lays out the passions and contradictions of the often painful process of writing the Constitution.

Now in its sixth edition with coverage of major Supreme Court decisions through the end of the 2013-2014 term, this book remains a key source for students, professors, and citizens seeking balanced, up-to-date information on the Constitution, its amendments, and how they have been interpreted. A document that is well past two centuries old, the U.S. Constitution remains as relevant and important today as during the time of our country's founding. Now in its sixth edition, this single-volume work offers a fair, non-partisan treatment of one of the most important documents in American history. The book begins with introductory background information on the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and then presents a clause-by-clause explanation of the Constitution from the preamble through all of its amendments, addressing how each has been interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court and other institutions throughout U.S. history. This fully updated edition of A Companion to the United States Constitution and Its Amendments incorporates numerous new developments in the four years since the previous edition, including the appointments of new Supreme Court justices, impactful cases involving First Amendment rights for students, the Affordable Care Act, National Security Agency (NSA) data gathering, voting rights, campaign finance law, DNA sampling, and the ongoing battle over gay rights. As with the previous editions, John R. Vile provides a balanced and thorough treatment that identifies key Supreme Court decisions and other interpretations of the document while abstaining from unnecessarily complex and confusing explanations. Provides an accessible and informative introduction to the creation, meaning, and continuing role of the Constitution that is suited for high school students, undergraduate audiences, law students and researchers, reference librarians, and interested citizens who want to understand the Constitution and its amendments Presents balanced treatments of all key constitutional provisions and up-to-date information on how key U.S. Supreme Court decisions have interpreted the Constitution Includes a glossary, highlights of constitutional history, and a fully updated appendix of the names and dates of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Includes copies of the U.S. Constitution and Its Amendments, the Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation

The U.S. Constitution A to Z is an important addition to the CQ's Encyclopedia of American Government A to Z series. Maddex presents this guide to constitutional concepts and ideas in an A to Z format.

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In The Living Constitution, leading constitutional scholar David Strauss forcefully argues against the claims of Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork, and other "originalists," explaining in clear, jargon-free English how the Constitution can sensibly evolve, without falling into the anything-goes flexibility caricatured by opponents. The living Constitution is not an out-of-touch liberal theory, Strauss further shows, but a mainstream tradition of American jurisprudence--a common-law approach to the Constitution, rooted in the written document but also based on precedent. Each generation has contributed precedents that guide and confine judicial rulings, yet allow us to meet the demands of today, not force us to follow the commands of the long-dead Founders. Strauss explores how judicial decisions adapted the Constitution's text (and contradicted original intent) to produce some of our most profound accomplishments: the end of racial segregation, the expansion of women's rights, and the freedom of speech.