Constitutional Law

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The Federalist Papers

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay

Paperback edition of the classic Federalist Papers.

On Liberty

John Stuart Mill

On Liberty brilliantly defines the ideal balance of individual rights and the power of the state. The philosopher Bertrand Russell declared, "On Liberty remains a classic. . . . The present world would be better than it is, if [Mill's] principles were more respected." The book remains one of the seminal works of political theory in our culture. A publication of Boomer Books, especially designed and typeset for easy reading.

Declaration Of Independence, Constitution Of The United States Of America, Bill Of Rights And Constitutional Amendments

Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison

A compilation of important American government documents including the Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States of America, the Bill of Rights and all amendments to the United States Constitution. An excellent educational reference tool to have on hand.

This is a DRM FREE digital edition (NO Digital Rights Management!), with linked Table of Contents.

Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies, 4th Edition (Aspen Student Treatise Series)

Erwin Chemerinsky

Relied on by students, professors, and practitioners, Erwin Chemerinsky's popular treatise, Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies, Fourth Edition, clearly states the law and identifies the underlying policy issues in each area of constitutional law.

The characteristics that make this treatise so highly valued include:

  • Thorough coverage of all areas of constitutional law, suitable for both beginning and advanced courses.
  • Issues are presented clearly and with a neutral approach that examines all sides in constitutional law issues.
  • Discussion not only of doctrines but of the underlying policy issues of the law.
  • Flexible organization: the chapters can be used separately in any order.

Updated throughout, the Fourth Edition:

  • Focuses particularly on developments since the publication of the third edition, including issues involving standing, congressional power, presidential power and the war on terror, preemption, school desegregation, abortion rights and voting rights, and First Amendment issues concerning speech and religion.
  • Includes coverage of the most recent and significant cases :
    • Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation and its implications for taxpayer standing
    • Boumediene v. Bush and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, concerning the war on terror
    • Wyeth v. Levine and Riegel v. Medtronic (preemption cases)
    • Philip Morris USA v. Williams and the law of punitive damages
    • District of Columbia v. Heller (an in-depth look at this case in a new section on the Second Amendment)
    • Gonzalez v. Carhart and its importance in analyzing issues concerning abortion rights
    • Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd. and the law of voting rights
    • Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, on the use of race in school desegregation
    • Garcetti v. Ceballos and its significance for the speech of government employees
    • Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Randall v. Sorrell, and Wisconsin Right to Life v. FEC (campaign finance law)
    • Morse v. Frederick and student speech

The Law

Frederic Bastiat

The Law was originally published in French in 1850 by Frederic Bastiat. It was written two years after the third French Revolution of 1848. From Wikipedia: Claude Frédéric Bastiat (29 June 1801 – 24 December 1850) was a French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly. He was notable for developing the important economic concept of opportunity cost. Bastiat was born in Bayonne, Aquitaine, France. When he was nine years old, he was orphaned and became a ward of his paternal grandparents. At 17, he left school to work in his family's export business. Economist Thomas DiLorenzo suggests that this experience was crucial to Bastiat's later work since it allowed young Frédéric to acquire first-hand knowledge of how regulation can affect markets. Sheldon Richman notes that "he came of age during the Napoleonic wars, with their extensive government intervention in economic affairs." When Bastiat was 25, his grandfather died, leaving the young man the family estate, thereby providing him with the means to further his theoretical inquiries. Bastiat developed intellectual interests in several areas including philosophy, history, politics, religion, travel, poetry, political economy and biography. After the middle-class Revolution of 1830, Bastiat became politically active and was elected justice of the peace in 1831 and to the Council General (county-level assembly) in 1832. He was elected to the national legislative assembly after the French Revolution of 1848. His public career as an economist began only in 1844. It was cut short by his untimely death in 1850. Bastiat had contracted tuberculosis, probably during his tours throughout France to promote his ideas, and that illness eventually prevented him from making further speeches (particularly at the legislative assembly to which he was elected in 1848 and 1849) and took his life. Bastiat died in Rome on 24 December 1850. Bastiat was the author of many works on economics and political economy, generally characterized by their clear organization, forceful argumentation, and acerbic wit. Economist Murray Rothbard wrote that "Bastiat was indeed a lucid and superb writer, whose brilliant and witty essays and fables to this day are remarkable and devastating demolitions of protectionism and of all forms of government subsidy and control. He was a truly scintillating advocate of an untrammeled free market." On the other hand, Bastiat himself declared that subsidy should be available, but limited: "under extraordinary circumstances, for urgent cases, the State should set aside some resources to assist certain unfortunate people, to help them adjust to changing conditions." Among his better known works is Economic Sophisms, which contains many strongly worded attacks on statist policies. Bastiat wrote it while living in England to advise the shapers of the French Republic on pitfalls to avoid. Contained within Economic Sophisms is the famous satirical parable known as the "Candlemakers' petition" which presents itself as a demand from the candlemakers' guild to the French government, asking the government to block out the Sun to prevent its unfair competition with their products. He also facetiously "advocated" forbidding the usage of everyone's right hand, based on the assumptions that more difficulty means more work and more work means more wealth. Much like Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal or Benjamin Franklin's anti-slavery works, Bastiat's argument cleverly highlights basic flaws in protectionism by demonstrating its absurdity through logical extremes. Bastiat's most famous work, however, is undoubtedly THE LAW, originally published as a pamphlet in 1850. It defines, through development, a just system of laws and then demonstrates how such law facilitates a free society. He also famously engaged in a debate, between 1849 and 1850, with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon about the legitimacy of interest.

The Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution

Brion McClanahan

What Does the Constitution Really Mean?

Are liberals right when they cite the “elastic” clauses of the Constitution to justify big government? Or are conservatives right when they cite the Constitution’s explicit limits on federal power? The answer lies in a more basic question: How did the founding generation intend for us to interpret and apply the Constitution? Professor Brion McClanahan, popular author of The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Founding Fathers, finds the answers by going directly to the source — to the Founding Fathers themselves, who debated all the relevant issues in their state constitutional conventions.

In The Founding Fathers’ Guide to the Constitution, you’ll discover:

  • How the Constitution was designed to protect rather than undermine the rights of States
  • Why Congress, not the executive branch, was meant to be the dominant branch of government—and why the Founders would have argued for impeaching many modern presidents for violating the Constitution
  • Why an expansive central government was the Founders’ biggest fear, and how the Constitution—and the Bill of Rights— was designed to guard against it
  • Why the founding generation would regard most of the current federal budget—including “stimulus packages”—as unconstitutional
  • Why the Founding Fathers would oppose attempts to “reform” the Electoral College
  • Why the Founding Fathers would be horrified at the enormous authority of the Supreme Court, and why the Founders intended Congress, not the Court, to interpret federal law

Authoritative, fascinating, and timely, The Founding Fathers’ Guide to the Constitution is the definitive layman’s guide to America’s most important—and often willfully misunderstood—historical document.

Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia

Jean P. Sasson

A Saudi Arabian princess describes the inequities for women in her country, discussing arranged marriages for child brides, the murder of female babies, and her own life in the shadow of men. 100,000 first printing. $85,000 ad/promo. Lit Guild Alt. First serial, Cosmopolitan. Tour.

The Federalist Papers [Illustrated]

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay

The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles or essays promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788. A compilation of these and eight others, called The Federalist; or, The New Constitution, was published in two volumes in 1788 by J. and A. McLean.

The Federalist remains the major primary source for interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, as the essays outline a lucid and compelling version of the philosophy and motivation of the proposed system of government. The authors of The Federalist wanted both to influence the vote in favor of ratification and to shape future interpretations of the Constitution.

However, the authors of the Federalist papers also had a greater plan in mind. According to Federalist 1:

It has been frequently remarked, that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force.

According to historian Richard B. Morris, they are an "incomparable exposition of the Constitution, a classic in political science unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer."

At the time of publication, the authorship of the articles was a closely guarded secret, though astute observers guessed that Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.

This book contains the complete text of;

- The Federalist Papers

- United States Declaration of Independence

- Articles of Confederation

- United States Constitution

- Bill of Rights

Color Blind Justice: Albion Tourgée and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson

Mark Elliott

Civil War officer, Reconstruction "carpetbagger," best-selling novelist, and relentless champion of equal rights--Albion Tourgée battled his entire life for racial justice. Now, in this engaging biography, Mark Elliott offers an insightful portrait of a fearless lawyer, jurist, and writer, who fought for equality long after most Americans had abandoned the ideals of Reconstruction. Elliott provides a fascinating account of Tourgée's life, from his childhood in the Western Reserve region of Ohio (then a hotbed of abolitionism), to his years as a North Carolina judge during Reconstruction, to his memorable role as lead plaintiff's counsel in the landmark Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson. Tourgée's brief coined the phrase that justice should be "color-blind," and his career was one long campaign to make good on that belief. A redoubtable lawyer and an accomplished jurist, Tourgée's writings represent a mountain of dissent against the prevailing tide of racial oppression. A poignant and inspiring study in courage and conviction, Color-Blind Justice offers us an unforgettable portrayal of Albion Tourgée and the principles to which he dedicated his life.

From The Color of Our Skin to the Color of a Bandanna: Our Parents Fought for The Civil Rights of Colored People - But Now We're Fighting Over the Color of a Handkerchief.

Webster Edgewood

From The Color of Our Skin to the Color of a Bandanna illustrates how African Americans came together to fight for the civil rights of colored people during the time of racial injustice. The author also examines how modern-day African American men are currently battling one another over the color of a handkerchief. The author further reveals that these young men are not making the most out of all of the freedoms and opportunities that they have today, of which their parents didn’t have during those days of inequality.
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