Political factors influence judicial decisions. Arguments and input from lawyers and interest groups, the ebb and flow of public opinion, and especially the ideological and behavioral inclinations of the justices all combine to shape the development of constitutional doctrine. Drawing on political science as much as from legal studies, Constitutional Law for a Changing America helps students realize that Supreme Court cases are more than just legal names and citations.
As always, Epstein and Walker account for new scholarship as well as reconsider all excerpted cases for both additions and cuts. With meticulous updating throughout, the authors feature reworked and revised discussion on:
- the methods of constitutional interpretation,
- jurisdiction stripping and standing,
- the appointments clause and theories of presidential power,
- theories of the separation-of-powers system,
- all cases related to the war on terrorism,
- theories of federalism and the current state of the federalism/commerce doctrine; in particular, linkages between chapters 6 and 7 have been made more explicit.
Two important improvements in the book’s design lead to more focused and effective reading:
- a revamped interior layout clearly delineates between author commentary and opinion excerpts,
- a new “Arguments” section in the case commentary details the attorneys’ arguments for each side.
Formats Available from CQ Press
| ISBN: 978-1-60426-962-8 |
Format: Text + Online Case Archive |
Retail Price: $99.00 |
Price to Bookstores: $79.20 |
| ISBN: 978-1-60426-516-3 |
Format: Print Paperback |
Retail Price: $99.00 |
Price to Bookstores: $79.20 |
New to this Edition
As always, Epstein and Walker account for new scholarship as well as reconsider all excerpted cases for both additions and cuts. With meticulous updating throughout, the authors feature reworked and revised discussion on:
- the methods of constitutional interpretation,
- jurisdiction stripping and standing,
- the appointments clause and theories of presidential power,
- theories of the separation-of-powers system,
- all cases related to the war on terrorism, theories of federalism and the current state of the federalism/commerce doctrine; in particular, linkages between chapters 6 and 7 have been made more explicit.
Two important improvements in the book’s design lead to more focused and effective reading: - a revamped interior layout clearly delineates between author commentary and opinion excerpts,
- a new “Arguments” section in the case commentary details the attorneys’ arguments for each side.
6th Edition ©2007
5th Edition ©2004
4th Edition ©2001
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Table of Contents
Chronological Table of Cases
Tables, Figures, and Boxes
Preface
I. THE U.S. CONSTITUTION
An Introduction to the U.S. Constitution
The Road to the U.S. Constitution
Underlying Principles of the Constitution
READINGS
1. UNDERSTANDING THE U.S. SUPREME COURT
Processing Supreme Court Cases
Supreme Court Decision Making: The Role of Law and Legal Methods
Supreme Court Decision Making: The Role of Politics
Conducting Research on the Supreme Court
READINGS
II. INSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY
Structuring the Federal System
Origins of the Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances System
Separation of Powers and the Constitution
Contemporary Thinking on the Constitutional Scheme
READINGS
2. THE JUDICIARY
Establishment of the Federal Judiciary
Judicial Review
Marbury v. Madison (1803)
Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee (1816)
Eakin v. Raub (1825)
Constraints on Judicial Power: Article III
Ex parte McCardle (1869)
Baker v. Carr (1962)
Nixon v. United States (1993)
Flast v. Cohen (1968)
Constraints on Judicial Power: The Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances System
READINGS
3. THE LEGISLATURE
Article I: Historical Overview
Congressional Authority over Internal Affairs:
Institutional Independence and Integrity
Powell v. McCormack (1969)
U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995)
Gravel v. United States (1972)
Sources and Scope of Legislative Powers
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
McGrain v. Daugherty (1927)
Watkins v. United States (1957)
Barenblatt v. United States (1959)
United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936)
South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966)
Congress and Constitutional Interpretation
READINGS
4. THE EXECUTIVE
Article II: Basic Considerations
Bush v. Gore (2000)
The Faithful Execution of the Laws: Defining the Contours of Presidential Power
In re Neagle (1890)
Domestic Powers of the President
Clinton v. City of New York (1998)
Morrison v. Olson (1988)
Myers v. United States (1926)
Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (1935)
United States v. Nixon (1974)
Mississippi v. Johnson (1867)
Nixon v. Fitzgerald (1982)
Clinton v. Jones (1997)
Ex parte Grossman (1925)
Murphy v. Ford (1975)
The President and Foreign Policy
United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936)
READINGS
5. THE SEPARATION OF POWERS SYSTEM IN ACTION
Debates over the Separation of Powers System
Domestic Powers
Mistretta v. United States (1989)
Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha (1983)
Bowsher v. Synar (1986)
Presidential Power During War and National Emergencies
The Prize Cases (1863)
Ex parte Milligan (1866)
Ex parte Quirin (1942)
Korematsu v. United States (1944)
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952)
Dames & Moore v. Regan (1981)
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006)
READINGS
III. NATION-STATE RELATIONS
Allocating Government Power
The Framers and Federalism
The Tenth and Eleventh Amendments
READINGS
6. FEDERALISM
Nation-State Relations: The Doctrinal Cycle
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Scott v. Sandford (1857)
Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)
National League of Cities v. Usery (1976)
Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985)
New York v. United States (1992)
Printz v. United States (1997)
The Eleventh Amendment
Alden v. Maine (1999)
New Judicial Federalism Michigan v. Long (1983)
National Preemption of State Laws
State of Missouri v. Holland (1920)
Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council (2000)
Pennsylvania v. Nelson (1956)
Pacific Gas and Electric Company v. State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (1983)
READINGS
7. THE COMMERCE POWER
Constitutional Foundations of the Commerce Power
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
Defining Interstate Commerce
United States v. E. C. Knight Co. (1895)
Stafford v. Wallace (1922)
The Supreme Court and the New Deal
A. L. A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935)
National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation (1937)
United States v. Darby (1941)
Wickard v. Filburn (1942)
Limits on the Commerce Power: The Republican Court Era
United States v. Lopez (1995)
United States v. Morrison (2000)
Gonzales v. Raich (2005)
Regulating Commerce as a Federal Police Power
Champion v. Ames (1903)
Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States (1964)
Commerce Power of the States
Cooley v. Board of Wardens (1852)
Southern Pacific Company v. Arizona (1945)
Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission (1977)
Maine v. Taylor (1986)
Granholm v. Heald (2005)
READINGS
8. THE POWER TO TAX AND SPEND
The Constitutional Power to Tax and Spend
Direct Taxes and the Power to Tax Income
Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. (1895)
Taxation of Exports
United States v. United States Shoe Corp. (1998)
Intergovernmental Tax Immunity
South Carolina v. Baker (1988)
Davis v. Michigan Dept. of Treasury (1989)
Taxation as a Regulatory Power
McCray v. United States (1904)
Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. (1922)
Taxing and Spending for the General Welfare
United States v. Butler (1936)
Steward Machine Co. v. Davis (1937)
South Dakota v. Dole (1987)
Restrictions on the Revenue Powers of the States
Michelin Tire Corp. v. Wages (1976)
Complete Auto Transit v. Brady (1977)
Quill Corp. v. North Dakota (1992)
Oregon Waste Systems, Inc. v. Department of Environmental Quality of Oregon (1994)
READINGS
IV. ECONOMIC LIBERTIES
Economic Liberties and Individual Rights
READINGS
9. THE CONTRACT CLAUSE
The Framers and the Contract Clause
John Marshall and the Contract Clause
Fletcher v. Peck (1810)
Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)
Decline of the Contract Clause: From the Taney Court to the New Deal
Proprietors of Charles River Bridge v. Proprietors of Warren Bridge (1837)
Stone v. Mississippi (1880)
Home Building and Loan Assn. v. Blaisdell (1934)
Modern Applications of the Contract Clause
United States Trust Co. v. New Jersey (1977)
Allied Structural Steel Co. v. Spannaus (1978)
READINGS
10. ECONOMIC SUBSTANTIVE DUE PROCESS
Development of Substantive Due Process
The Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)
Munn v. Illinois (1877)
Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897)
The Roller-Coaster Ride of Substantive Due Process: 1898–1923
Lochner v. New York (1905)
Muller v. Oregon (1908)
The Heyday of Substantive Due Process: 1923–1936
Adkins v. Children’s Hospital (1923)
The Depression, the New Deal, and the Decline of Substantive Due Process
Nebbia v. New York (1934)
West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937)
Williamson v. Lee Optical Company (1955)
Substantive Due Process: Contemporary Relevance
BMW of North America v. Gore (1996)
Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Co., Inc. (2009)
READINGS
11. THE TAKINGS CLAUSE
Protecting Private Property from Government Seizure
What Is a Taking?
United States v. Causby (1946)
Penn Central Transportation Company v. City of New York (1978)
Nollan v. California Coastal Commission (1987)
Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council (1992)
Public Use Requirement
Berman v. Parker (1954)
Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff (1984)
Kelo v. City of New London (2005)
READINGS
Reference Material
Constitution of the United States
Federalist Paper No. 78
U.S. Presidents
Thumbnail Sketch of the Supreme Court’s History
The Justices
Natural Courts
Supreme Court Calendar
Briefing Supreme Court Cases
Glossary
Online Case Archive List
Subject Index
Case Index
Testimonials
A new edition of Institutional Powers and Constraints is welcome news indeed! This deftly edited, reader-friendly casebook is ideal for both students and instructors.
- Judith Baer, Texas A&M UniversityInstitutional Powers and Constraints is a very strong text, which is why I’ve always come back to it. I used the first edition! You arguably have the two best scholars in the field, but the text’s strength goes beyond its authors’ credentials: the book simply combines the politics of the judiciary with the legal approach that courts must take in dealing with legal argumentation.
- Gregory Casey, University of MissouriThis is the best book available for undergraduate constitutional law classes. It addresses all critical issues through cases and commentary, and I appreciate greatly and use the online case archive. I look forward to using the seventh edition in my class.
- Richard A. Brisbin Jr., West Virginia UniversityInstitutional Powers and Constraints is an ideal text for classes on government powers. Epstein and Walker achieve just the right balance of case law and textual elaboration in a way that puts disputes in historical context and helps students realize their relevance for difficult issues facing political actors and judicial decision makers in our constitutional democracy today. The book’s focus on themes like power, capacity, and democratic accountability helps students to understand why state and federal government officials have the authority to do the things that they do—and more importantly, to think critically about where state authority should lie in our system of divided government.
- Eileen Braman, Indiana UniversityWhat distinguishes this text from the many others is the sophisticated integration of politics and history into constitutional law. The more we read Constitutional Law, the more we learn that truth is rarely found in the linguistic disputation; this book appropriately emphasizes what else is happening that molds court rulings.
- David Baggins, California State University, East BayInstitutional Powers and Constraints is a superb book for undergraduates. It not only provides students with a solid grounding in law, but it also combines this with a rich political analysis as well. The cases are also very well edited. Of course, the most important thing is that students like this book every bit as much as I do. I would be hard pressed to think of using any other constitutional law book than this one. The same should be said for its companion, Rights, Liberties, and Justice.
- Mark Gibney, University of North Carolina at AshevilleConstitutional Law for a Changing America is an excellent tool for teaching the interplay between politics, judicial decision making and the development of constitutional law. Epstein and Walker expertly edit Supreme Court cases to preserve the crucial elements, while facilitating the development of the student’s critical analysis skills. Web-based updates with the latest cases make the development of constitutional doctrine relevant to today’s most important political conflicts.
- Jeffrey Davis, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Bio(s)
Lee Epstein, University of Southern California, School of Law
Lee Epstein is the Rader Family Trustee Chair in Law and the Provost Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of Southern California. She is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Political and Social Science. She received her Ph.D. from Emory University. She is coauthor of The Supreme Court and Legal Change: Abortion and the Death Penalty (1992) with Joseph Kobylka; Advice and Consent: The Politics of Judicial Appointments (2005) with Jeffrey A. Segal; The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments, 4th ed. (2007) with Segal, Harold J. Spaeth, and Thomas G. Walker; and The Choices Justices Make (1998) with Jack Knight, which won the C. Herman Pritchett Award for the best book on law and courts. In addition, she is coauthor, with Walter F. Murphy and C. Herman Pritchett of Courts, Judges and Politics, 6th ed. (2006).
Thomas G. Walker, Emory University
Thomas G. Walker is Goodrich C. White Professor of Political Science at Emory University where he has won several teaching awards for his courses on constitutional law and the judicial process. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. His book, A Court Divided, written with Deborah J. Barrow, won the prestigious V.O. Key Award for the best book on southern politics. He is the coauthor of The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments, 4th ed. (2007) with Lee Epstein, Jeffrey A. Segal, and Harold J. Spaeth.
Ancillaries
Precedent-setting resources at: http://clca.cqpress.com
New study aids for students . . .
- More than 400 supplemental, excerpted cases
- Interactive online flashcards with key terms
Instructor's Resources available for adopters!
And improved teaching aids for instructors, created by Timothy Johnson (University of Minnesota):
- Discussion questions for every chapter
- The book’s tables and figures available for download
- PowerPoint lecture slides for every chapter
- And revised and updated test questions (multiple-choice, essay, and hypothetical)
*Students purchasing new copies will enjoy free access to http://clca.cqpress.com. Students purchasing used copies may purchase access here.
