Learning Constitutional Law

Learning Constitutional Law provides students with a comprehensive exploration of the core articles and amendments of the U.S. Constitution establishing the structure of the federal and state governments and select rights. Students learn how they are interpreted and applied, relevant history, and the arc of their development.

The opening examines Article III of the Constitution, the case and controversy requirement for federal courts, the standing doctrine, and the justiciability of political questions. Additional chapters explore Article I, which gives Congress its powers; Article II, the source of executive power; separation of powers; and what powers the Tenth Amendment gives states. Students learn how the Constitution protected slavery until the Civil War Amendments ended it; how the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits racial, gender, and sexual orientation discrimination; and how the First Amendment protects rights related to speech, assembly, and petition. The final chapter discusses the First Amendment's two religion clauses.

Providing students with a thorough introduction, Learning Constitutional Law is a critical resource for courses and programs in law.

About the Author :
Leslie C. Griffin is the William S. Boyd Professor of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, within the William S. Boyd School of Law. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. She coauthored Law and Religion: Cases and Materials with Andrew Seidel, now in its fifth edition, and Practicing Bioethics Law with Joan H. Krause. She has written numerous briefs, articles, and book chapters on the religion clauses of the First Amendment.

Marci A. Hamilton is Professor of Practice in the Department of Political Science and Fox Family Pavilion Non-resident Senior Fellow in the Program for Research on Religion at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds master's degrees in philosophy and English from Pennsylvania State University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, where she served as editor-in-chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. She clerked for United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Hamilton is the author of God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty, Fundamentalism, Politics, and the Law (with Mark Rozell); Children and the Law; and Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children. She is also the founder and CEO of CHILD USA, a nonprofit interdisciplinary think tank developing civil rights for children.