American Constitutional Law (18^th Ed.)
Introductory Essays and Selected Cases

This book is a collection of comprehensive background essays coupled with carefully edited Supreme Court case excerpts designed to explore constitutional law and the role of the Supreme Court in its development and interpretation. Well-grounded in both theory and politics, the book endeavors to heighten students? understanding of this critical part of the American political system.

New to the 18th Edition

• An account of the Trump impeachments and a full discussion of the recent Supreme Court transitions including recent Supreme Court transitions including the fraught Kavanaugh hearings, the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and the nomination process surrounding Amy Coney Barrett.

• Fourteen new cases carefully edited and excerpted, including Chifalo v. Washington (2020) on the Electoral College,Masterpiece Cakeshop (2018) on gay rights, and three Trump cases as well.
• Thirty-one new cases discussed in chapter essays in addition.

Preface

The Constitution of the United States Of America

Introduction: A Political Supreme Court

1. Jurisdiction and Organization of the Federal Courts

2. The Constitution, the Supreme Court, and Judicial Review

3. Congress and the President

4. Federalism

5. The Electoral Process

6. The Commerce Clause

7. National Taxing and Spending Power

8. Property Rights and the Development of Due Process

9. The Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment

10. Criminal Justice

11. Freedom of Expression

12. Religious Liberty

13. Privacy

14. Equal Protection of the Laws

15. Security and Freedom in Wartime and Pandemic

Appendix A: Justices of the Supreme Court

Appendix B: Presidents and Justices

Appendix C: American Constitutional Development as Reflected in a Chronology of Cases Reprinted in This Book

Glossary

Index of Cases

Index of Subjects and Names

Alpheus Thomas Mason (late) was McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus at Princeton University.

Donald Grier Stephenson, Jr. is Charles A. Dana Professor of Government, Emeritus, at Franklin and Marshall College where he taught from 1970 until 2017. Reared on a farm near Covington, Georgia, he is a graduate of Davidson College (1964), and received the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University in 1966 and 1967, respectively. Between 1968 and 1970 he was in the United States Army, completing his service at the rank of captain. He is author of Campaigns and the Court: The U.S. Supreme Court in Presidential Elections (1999), The Waite Court (2003), and The Right to Vote (2004), and is coauthor of American Constitutional Law (17th ed. 2018), and Introduction to American Government (9th ed., 2017). He writes "The Judicial Bookshelf" for The Journal of Supreme Court History.