Constitutional Law: Cases, Comments, Questions

by William B. Lockhart, Jesse H. Choper, Yale Kamisar

Book Overview

This Black Letter discusses the allocations of national and state governmental power, individual rights and liberties, and the constitutional limitations on governmental power. Topics covered include... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0314983996
• ISBN13: 9780314983992
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: West Publishing Company
• Length: 37 Pages
• Weight: 5.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Helpful for outlining and quick reference

This book was very helpful for outlining and quick reference of holdings and definitions. This book teaches you the material in clear and succinct fashion. I recommend it highly.

Helpful, but not as extensive as others

I used this and the Emanuel's con law outlines. This one is no where near as thorough as Emanuel's, and it doesn't go as deep into the opinions (especially dissents, concurrences) but it has its own advantages. Mainly, this is great for having a very clear statement of the black letter law. It's not elementary, not any any means, and I really appreciated it when I was putting together my own outline, especially since my professor emphasized theory/interpretation in his lectures: this was great for putting everything into perspective.

A staple of Constitutional Law

Hornbooks have long been a staple resource for law students and legal researchers. This text by Nowak et al. is a good text for Constitutional Law - it is not comprehensive, in that it has intentionally excluded other areas (conflict of laws, criminal procedure, etc.) that are likely covered in other law classes. This text deliberately looks at the areas of Constitutional Law that are most frequently used and discussed in classes, in courts and in the media. The authors present a very case-law based presentation. They do occasionally add extra elements (for example, they reference Corwin as a substantial predecessor; in addition to his case-law work, he is known for essays and lectures on the philosophical underpinnings of constitutional law, particularly the 'higher law' aspect of American regard for the Constitution). The three primary sections of the text are I - Judicial Review, II - Federal System and Federal Powers, and III - Individual Rights and Liberties. Within the first section, the idea of judicial review, jurisdiction, and Supreme Court review are introduced; somewhat ironically, the idea of judicial review for Constitutionality by the Supreme Court and other courts is not itself a part of the Constitution. Within the second section, issues of federal authority, fiscal powers, commerce and regulation, Congressional and Presidential powers, and international affairs are addressed. In the final section, after an overview of individual liberties contained in the Bill of Rights and other amendments, discussions include substantive due process and procedural due process, equal protection, civil rights and citizenship. The text includes appendices which include the list of justices of the Supreme Court, an interesting section of proposed amendments to the Constitution that were not ratified, and (not surprisingly) the text of the Constitution itself. I take off one star for the editing that this volume needed to get but did not. While not detrimental to the content, the number of mistakes is occasionally distracting. This book really is intended for lawyers and future lawyers, so the language is often 'legal-ese', but for a thorough grounding in the area of constitutional law as done by the lawyers and judges, this is a good text to study.

Not for the casual reader...

We used this book for two semesters of Constitutional Law at law school. Even so we covered less than half of it. It is not easy reading but when used with other study aids or Lexis the cases become more clear.If you are looking at this for law school purposes you probably don't have a choice. For those of you who are non students just looking for a book on constitutional law I would not recommend it. It is just too dense. Guess that is why it is used in a teaching environment.

Simple Overview of Constitutional Law

This Hornbook provides a wonderful overview of constitutional law. It strikes the balance between an indepth study and a superficial review. It imparts a sense of the history of constitutional law, while still providing an indepth analysis of the most important cases. It is well written and easy to follow.I used this study aid to much success in my constitutional law class.