Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Rights, Liberties, and Justice

by Lee J. Epstein, Thomas G. Walker

Examining the Supreme Court's interpretation of the basic liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments to the Constitution, the authors cover such important topics as freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, discrimination, and political participation. Shaving off 50 pages with strategic streamlining, the book is now leaner, allowing students to engage more effectively with material, while allowing instructors to assign more cases without necessarily assigning more pages. Bringing the volume fully up-to-date, this sixth edition gives increased attention to the electronic age and the significance of the Internet on speech, press, libel, obscenity, and privacy, as well as the impact of the war on terrorism on rights, liberty, and justice.

Genres: Law, Reference, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Politics, School, College

788 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Syd W]

Super super helpful in successfully summarizing and not forgetting the important parts regarding standards and tests used in court opinions. Not all court opinions are included which would be nice but the book does an excellent job of narrowing down the otherwise 70-80 page court opinions!

[Thomas Myers]

I don't think the author respected his own argument.

[Cate Tedford]

did that. #conlawqueen

[Shannon]

for school

[Cassandra]

Both this book and the Institutional Powers book by the same authors are used at my University for the Constitutional Law courses. It is, as most law texts are, a little dry, kind of dull, and a whole lot of information crammed into a thick book in small type. That being said, Epstein & Walker succeed in making the information more accessible than any other textbook I've had to use in my studies on the same subject matter, and include photographs on major cases to help students place the information. They also contextualize the case information, giving the technical explanations and following with a more colloquial summary to ensure that the major points are understood.

The books do tend to be on the expensive side (in the realm of PoliSci texts, anyway), so if you know you're taking the class and if your school, like mine, uses this book across the board, it's best to buy it in the middle of a semester when those who have dropped are just trying to unload the book as quickly as possible. I managed to find it for under $35 on Amazon where it usually retails for around $75 (still significantly less than campus bookstores, even for used editions!).

[Kony]

Situates key decisions in political context, giving enough detail to orient, but not so much as to overwhelm. Illuminates diverse influences on law's development, attending to the big picture (internat'l and nat'l events), the small picture (individual justices, parties in cases), and the medium picture (intra-court dynamics, inter-branch relations). Leaves me feeling like a better educated American, equipped to discuss legal history more intelligently.

[Anne Fox]

This is a lengthy and comprehensive overview of the major issues confronting the Supreme Court, complete with case examples and excerpts from the findings of the Court. I wouldn't recommend this book for someone completely unversed in law. but for those wanting to gain a more complete understanding of how our Supreme Court works, this is an excellent text.

[Ashley M]

I loved my con law class. I want to know more about the cases and courts. Just fascinating.

[enja reads]

For a textbook, I think it is a great overview. It is well-organized and gives excerpts of many important decisions.

[Kevin Altman]

Political Science classic...a must!