Constitutional Civil Liberties

by C. Herman Pritchett

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0131678582
• ISBN13: 9780131678583
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Length: 406 Pages

Customer Reviews

The right to know one's rights...

When the Constitution was finished at convention in 1787, for some reason there was no Bill of Rights. According to Professor C. Herman Pritchett of U.C. Santa Barbara, no one is quite sure why. Some thought it unnecessary, the powers of the federal government having been circumscribed to only those ennumerated in the Constitution. However, it became apparent as the Constitution worked its way through the ratification process that individual rights and liberties were of primary concern. James Madison in the first Congress crafted ten amendments - these became collectively known as the Bill of Rights upon ratification. Most of what we think of today as Constitutionally guaranteed rights and civil liberties derive from these amendments, with a few other amendments over time added in. Pritchett's book explores the issues of civil rights and liberties. The first two chapters examine the theoretical and philosophical ideas of liberties, and the methodology the Supreme Court has developed over time to guide interpretation. There is then a sequence of chapters that examines the four primary freedoms of the First Amendment - freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and association, and freedom of religion. Issues of libel and obscentity, involving both speech and press issues, are dealt with in a further chapter. Further chapters explore other civil liberties issues primary deriving from the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, especially due process and equal protections clauses. The chapters develop the idea of equal protections deriving first from a protection on corporations to later becoming a fundamental individual rights support, and the idea of substantive due process being a concept that waxes and wanes throughout the history of judicial process. Near the conclusion of the book, Pritchett deals with the right to vote (franchise), that which he calls 'a basic instrument for the protection of civil liberties and constitutional rights.' Pritchett develops the text with both essay and case law. He uses case summaries and rulings in their own words to a great degree. Pritchett is not shy at saying which rulings and trends he considers good or bad reasoning, and good or bad effects. He quotes Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who wrote, 'The life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience.' Sometimes the Courts have not been 'reasonable', and Pritchett exposes alternative thinking (sometimes in dissenting opinions, and sometimes in his own writing) frequently. Pritchett traces the development of the ideas and codification of rights as well as the development of constitutional legalism through to the present day in modern cases and situations. This is a good companion book for those with an interest in developing this particular aspect of Constitutional Law - Pritchett suggests in his preface that this volume works best in conjunction with a more general text on American Constitutional Law (h