The American Constitutional Order: History, Cases, and Philosophy

The new edition of The American Constitutional Order is designed for a four- to six-semester-hour course on Constitutional Law covering both the structural features of the Constitution as well as individual rights. This book includes ample historical materials, lengthy explanatory notes, both introducing and following cases, and employs exemplar or principal cases rather than merely cumulating redundant examples. The American Constitutional Order is a book with an explicit point of view. In the colloquial, a book with an attitude--namely, that history counts, and that within this American story is a premise of the protection of fundamental natural rights. The authors do not expect every instructor to share their perspective, but they do make this honest pedagogical point: all books have a point of view. Staking out territory in favor of the aspiration of the rule of law and American historical antecedents in fresh ways, this book stimulates thinking and classroom instruction--whether an instructor wishes to travel with, or teach against, the authors' premises.