American Constitutional Law: Introductory Essays and Selected Cases

by Alpheus Thomas Mason, Donald Grier Stephenson Jr.

This classic collection of carefully selected and edited Supreme Court case excerpts and comprehensive background essays explores constitutional law and the role of the Supreme Court in its development and interpretation. Well-grounded in both theory and politics, it displays the role of the U.S. Supreme Court as a legal and political institution and as a major player in American government. The volume examines and presents supporting cases regarding jurisdiction and organization of the federal courts, the constitution, the supreme court, and judicial review, congress and the president, federalism, the electoral process, the commerce clause, national taxing and spending power, property rights and the development of due process, nationalization of the bill of rights, criminal justice, freedom of expression, protest and symbolic speech, freedom of association, freedom of press, religious liberty, privacy, equal protection of the laws, and security and freedom in wartime. For those interested in American constitutional law.

Genres: Nonfiction, Law, College

730 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

A specialist in the American Constitution and the author of several judicial biographies, Alpheus Thomas Mason was McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus at Princeton University. He received his BA from Dickinson College in 1920 and his PhD from Princeton University in 1923, and he taught at Princeton from 1925 until his retirement in 1968.