Reviews (5)

An important work that clearly and succintly makes the case.
Bringing the credibility of her many years of public service, most notably her work as a Congresswoman during the Watergate Committee and as a prosecutor, Elizabeth Holtzman, with Cynthia Cooper, has produced an important work that is, at the same time, both lawyerly and accessible.They provide the reader with the background - both historical and legal - of the important role of impeachment in the maintenance of our democratic system and then proceed to seamlessly lay out the evidence that overwhelmingly supports their conclusion.While I may not have been the hardest person to sell on their conclusion, the argument is so well-drawn that it is hard to imagine that anyone approaching the book with an open-mind wouldn't come away thinking that impeachment is a necessity or, at least, an option that needs to be explored more in the public discourse.
Every American Should Read this Book
Holtzman and Cooper have created a brilliantly organized, succinct, and vivid analysis of President George W. Bush's high crimes and misdemeanors.Their book is engrossing and enraging; it makes abundantly clear why it is crucial that Congress take steps to impeach this president, for the very survival of our increasingly threatened democracy.

It's all here
This book is clear, crisp and compelling. After reading it you will wonder what is holding up the process. Holtzman's expertise and experience shows. The historical perspective is enlightening and the legal arguments are airtight. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Constitutional    2. Government - Executive Branch    3. Government - Federal    4. Impeachments    5. Law    6. Legal Reference / Law Profession    7. Legal status, laws, etc    8. Misconduct in office    9. Presidents    10. U.S. - Contemporary Politics    11. United States    12. Cultural studies    13. Law / Federal Jurisdiction    14. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    15. USA   

Reviews (17)

Carrying on the conversation...
Linda Monk's book on the American Constitution, `The Words We Live By', is a wonderfully accessible and interesting introduction to the foundational document of the American polity.She starts in her introductory material by presenting the Constitution not as a dry and dusty piece of parchment to be revered but essentially ignored, but rather as an engagement of peoples in open conversation, something that can and should have an impact on the daily life and work of all Americans.Drawing inspiration from Judge Learned Hand, she states, `For the Constitution to have meaning, it must be not only the words we recite, but also the words we live by.'
Constitution
As a student who began an in-depth study of the Constitution this year, this book was my introduction to the Constitution. Never having known that much about the government or Constitution, this book was incredibly helpful in giving a fairly deep overview of what the Constitution meant, clause by clause.

Useful for kids and internet newbies
I would recommend this book to two types of folks:
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Subjects:  1. Constitutional    2. Constitutional history    3. Constitutional law    4. Constitutions    5. History    6. History - U.S.    7. History: American    8. Popular works    9. United States    10. United States - General    11. History / United States / General   

Subjects:  1. Constitutional    2. Law    3. Legal Reference / Law Profession    4. Reference / Law   

Reviews (27)

Breyer's Theories of Constitutional Interpretation
Justice Stephen Breyer is often the key swing vote on the U.S. Supreme Court, as the Ten Commandments cases from June 2005 indicate.He is known as a judicial pragmatist.He is also known as the justice who is willing to spar with Justice Antonin Scalia over how to interpret the Constitution. In Active Liberty, Breyer produces a highly readable book that can be appreciated by lawyer and layperson alike.

A fine judicial temperament
Having just completed "Active Liberty", I now feel obligated to read Scalia's "A Matter of Interpretation" to hear the other side of the debate.However, I found Breyer's short treatise wonderfully lucid, accessible and persuasive.Not only is Bryer a wonderful educator and writer, he demonstrates a calm and thoughtful judicial temperament in contrast to some of his more fiery brethren (Scalia, Thomas).
Read Books Written by Sitting Supreme Court Justices
I think that it is good to read widely and get divergent perspectives.Thus, Christians and Jews should read the Quran and Muslims should read the Torah and the New Testament.Conservatives should read the Nation or the New Republic and visit the DailyKos website and liberals should read the Weekly Standard or National Review and visit RealClearPolitics.The same perspective applies with Breyer's book.Regardless of your perspective, you should read this brief and easily understandable statement of judicial philosophy from a sitting Supreme Court justice.(And, it would also be good to read the earlier counterpoint from Justice Scalia for the same reasons.)
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Subjects:  1. Constitutional    2. Constitutional Law    3. Government - U.S. Government    4. Interpretation and construction    5. Judicial process    6. Law    7. Legal Reference / Law Profession    8. United States    9. Law / Constitutional   

Reviews (10)

Neat!
The book is new and was sent on time!!!
A difficult process truly made easy!
I was so pleased when I stumbled across this book in my local library.
US Immigration Made Easy
This book has been invaluable in dealing with my family's immigration needs. It gave great assistance in bringing both my parents and my grandparents into the country legally, without having to spend too much time with legal aid lawyers. My community has many people requiring this help and I have passed this book along to them. Thanks for this guide. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Citizenship    2. Constitutional    3. Emigration & Immigration    4. Emigration And Immigration    5. Emigration and immigration law    6. Law    7. Legal Reference / Law Profession    8. Popular works    9. Reference    10. United States   

Reviews (1)

A straightforward and well-researched discussion
The First Amendment In Schools: A Guide From The First Amendment Center is the collaborative effort of Charles C. Haynes, Sam Chaltain, John E. Ferguson Jr., David L. Hudson Jr., and Oliver Thomas, and provides the reader with a straightforward and well-researched discussion of crucial important First Amendment rights which protects all citizens with freedom of speech and expression in America with specific reference to how this applies to public school issues, policies and concerns. Discussing 50 key legal cases, as well as the rights and responsibilities of educators and students, and offering information concerning more than 60 educational and advocacy programs and organizations providing First Amendment resources, The First Amendment In Schools is an excellent primer on this often controversial and occasionally misunderstood civil right. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1st Amendment    2. Civil rights    3. Constitution    4. Constitutional    5. Educational law and legislatio    6. Educational law and legislation    7. Law    8. Legal Reference / Law Profession    9. United States   

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business/Economics    3. Constitutional    4. Constitutional Law    5. General    6. Law    7. Legal Profession    8. United States    9. Business & Economics / General    10. Organizational theory & behaviour   

Reviews (3)

Better than most
The Redlich hornbook is a lot shorter and easier to read, but unfortunately is last updated in 1999.Until it is current, these are the best.

Disappointed
Normally, I recommend Examples & Explanation series over any of the other commerical outlines out there. I was very disappointed with both Constitutional Law books however. The examples are unhelpful, especially when a lot of the answers depend on material you won't learn for several chapters! Some of the text is useful but much of it is the authors biased view of what cases mean or should mean. This isn't helpful if you are not taking the class from them! A Must Buy for Constitutional Law Students
This book is the best study guide for Constitutional Law that I have read. It is written in narrative form, as opposed to outline form.Theexplanations of cases are clear and concise and reflect the nuances of thelenthy cases in this area where single-paragraph statements in outlinescannot.More importantly, the authors are well regarded constitutional lawprofessors whose evaluations of the cases can be trusted to be accurate aswell as even-handed. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Civil rights    2. Constitutional    3. Construction    4. Law    5. Legal Reference / Law Profession    6. United States    7. Financial, taxation, commercial, industrial law   

Reviews (5)

Good overview
You won't get an A just by listening to these CDs, but it will help you to gain a solid overview.I listened to these CDs and then read the corresponding chapters in Chemerinsky's book on Con Law.I still hated my Con Law class, but these two study aids were great.They helped me much more than a commerical outline did.

Sum & Substance Audio CDs are great, but the Con Law one is the best!
Listening to Audio CDs is not for everyone, but for those of us don't take the best notes and sometimes miss the info when it's mentioned in class the first time, these CDs are great. They are also good to listen to while playing computer games, relaxing, studying, or sleeping.
Ex Party Federalist Style
I have to agree with most of what the Honorable Marshall says.Unfortunately, like most legal commentators since The Chief's own misguided opinion in Marbury v. Madison, Prof. Cheh significantly overstates the power of the Judiciary to impose their will on the other branches.Do not let her Federalist bias confuse you come exam time. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Constitutional    2. Law   

Reviews (2)

Not business as usual
I've always been perplexed by the fact that we run our meetings according to rules dreamed up by a military engineer more than 100 years ago.Maybe Roberts' arcane procedures about what can be discussed by whom and when worked once upon a time, but they don't make sense either in the modern business world or for making important policy decisions today.
Great tool for developing effective communication
This book has great value whether you are a business owner, politician or public agency staffer, an environmentalist, a facilitator, mediator or any other interested party.It provides a simple, concise and easy-to-understand review of the consensus building process.From a communication perspective, consensus building lends itself towards helping any party in a negotiation develop a greater understanding and wider range of solutions that may be available on any given issue.
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Subjects:  1. Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business Communication - Meetings & Presentations    4. Decision Making & Problem Solving    5. Education    6. Business & Management    7. Business | Management    8. Constitutional & administrative law    9. Law / Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice   

Subjects:  1. Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice    2. Administrative law    3. Constitutional    4. General    5. Law    6. Legal Reference / Law Profession    7. Outlines, syllabi, etc    8. United States    9. Constitutional & administrative law    10. Jurisprudence & General Issues   

Reviews (5)

Keep Your Powder Dry
The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." A straight forward enough statement that this book shows has been interpreted in ways that are far from what its original drafters intended. When the amendment was written, the drafters distinguished between the concept of common defense and the concept of self-defense, as established in English Common Law. The amendment was originally written to prevent the newly created federal government from disarming the state militias that were considered the first line of defense against foreign invasions, civil disorder, and usurpation of power by the federal government. At the time, "well regulated militia" meant organized citizen soldiers trained and equipped to provide a common defense. The rights to self-defense and the weapons necessary to that type of defense were left to the discretion of the states. As this book explains with admirable clarity, and using actual case studies, this distinction between common and self-defense has gradually been lost as the U.S. itself has changed over the last two hundred years. Anyone wishing a real understanding of the second amendment and the many unresolved conflicts that it has generated would do well to read this book.

Well-balanced and insightful
You would think that before writing a review of a book, "reviewers" would take the time to read it. (See comments by 'A guy in PA')
Readers Should Be Aware...
Readers of this work should be aware that Saul Cornell's "Second Amendment Research Center" is funded by the Joyce Foundation.
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Subjects:  1. 2nd Amendment    2. Constitution.    3. Constitutional    4. Firearms    5. History    6. History: American    7. Law and legislation    8. Legal History    9. Legal Reference / Law Profession    10. Militia    11. United States    12. United States - General    13. United States.    14. Abortion    15. History / United States / General    16. Law | Constitutional Law    17. Social law    18. USA   

Reviews (16)

Terrifying Justice Department Double Think
Mr Yoo moves on from his earlier arguments that torture falls at a point slightly short of physical death, organ failure or loss of limb. Mr Yoo makes some interesting if devastating points with his new theories. The President's war powers, he argues, allow him to do, basically, whatever he wants. The President may, if he chooses, crush the genitals of children, maim, torture or kill civilians. In this respect one might remember that Bush ordered an air strike on the house occupied by the infant grandchildren of Saddam Hussein AFTER the end of the Iraq war and even though the house was surrounded by US troops. The President is limited, according to Mr Yoo, only by how he CHOOSES to interpret International Treaties and as he has the power to repudiate such treaties or ignore them entirely (as in the International Human Rights for the Child Treaty, the Geneva Convention or the Treaty of Vienna,) then, this means that presidential power is absolute EVEN if despotic criminal or tyrannical. Mr Yoo appears now to say that the President and his henchmen, cronies and agencies MAY indeed use indiscriminant torture. Mr Yoo however does not adequately explain how the President can thus overturn congressional treaty ratification. As what constitutes a 'time of war' is also up to the President and does not rely on any 'legal' declaration of war (which is a matter of international law to which the US is thus not subject,) then the US may have, effectively, a Despot Emperor for President. Does the 'War on Drugs' thus give the President the same wartime powers as he asserts for his 'War on Terror' - an undeclared war on no particular nation state? Is the US thus always in a state of war? This is interesting, not just semantically, as the District and Supreme Courts appear to agree with Mr Yoo's interpretation, blocking cases connected with this on grounds of national security whilst Congress does not appear to care. Perhaps Clinton should have used Mr Yoo's arguments in the Monical Lewinsky scandal and impeachment hearings. War powers might have thus allowed him to do whatever he wanted with his cigar and to lie about it in the national interest. The problem with Mr Yoo's argument is that Checks and Balances thus no longer appear to exist. Interestingly if one applies Mr Yoo's arguments to their logical end he becomes an eloquent advocate for terrorism or for the Holocaust where the ends justify the use of any means, however horrible. Of course, either this is pretty much nonsense and makes toilet paper of the Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta, democracy and human rights OR the truth is more terrifying and the US is now a Stalinist or Nazi state. I suspect Mr Yoo could be subject to arrest as a war criminal should he ever leave the United States and visit a civilised country???

Yoo has no clue!
The 2 biggest mistakes made by government in my lifetime are Congress giving away war powers in 1965 and 2002.The constitution holds that declaring war is the responsibility of the Congress.If the Executive has grounds for war let him/her present them and Ccongress vote.Twice I have seen Congress abdicate this important power with disasterous results.This is just one of many examples why Yoo has no clue.

This book's point about constitutional checks and balances were once taught in 8th grade civics class.
The outrage this book caused on publication is a sign of the incredible ignorance so prevalent these days about was once common knowledge--that the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches exist in parallel under the elegant system of checks and balances of the Constitution, each with their separate skill set and functions.This book is a necessary defense of the traditional constitutional idea that the executive branch has primacy in matters of war, national security, and foreign policy.It is sad that otherwise sensible people like Neal Katyal and Stuart Taylor should tout outre ideas about the Constitution as a big sandbag over the head of the President most especially in war, national security and foreign policy, as if this idea, which is strictly the invention of the left, were Con Law 101.It is so Nixon era.But there you go.The "me generation" took over the academy, threw out all the Rembrandts, and filled it up with their Hello Kitty and Marilyn tchotchkes. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Constitutional    2. Foreign relations    3. Government - U.S. Government    4. International Relations - Treaties    5. Law and legislation    6. Legal History    7. Legal Reference / Law Profession    8. Political Freedom & Security - General    9. Political Science    10. Politics/International Relations    11. Taxation    12. United States    13. War and emergency powers    14. Constitutional & administrative law    15. Diplomacy    16. Political Science / Treaties    17. USA    18. Warfare & Defence   

Subjects:  1. Asylum, Right of    2. Australia    3. Constitutional    4. Emigration & Immigration    5. Emigration and immigration law    6. General    7. Law    8. Legal Reference / Law Profession    9. Legal status, laws, etc    10. Legal status, laws, etc.    11. Political refugees    12. Constitutional & administrative law    13. Law / General   

Subjects:  1. Cases    2. Constitutional    3. Constitutional law    4. General    5. Legal Reference / Law Profession    6. Political Science    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Politics/International Relations    9. United States    10. Constitutional & administrative law    11. Political Science / General    12. Politics & government    13. USA   

Reviews (3)

Understanding the Constitution
I first used this text in the seventh edition (Mason, Beaney and Stephenson) in my undergraduate Constitutional Law class, and it has remained a constant resource for me.I have invested in two of the upgraded editions, including this latest 14th edition.
American Constitutional Law
American Constitutional Law:Introductory Essays and Selected Cases by Alpheus Thomas Mason and Donald Grier Stephenson is a book that when read you'll find an intricate blend of history and politics. This book is the best basic text on U.S. Constitutional law.
For any student of American constitutional law, this book is the best exposition of the fundamentals of the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court. Further enquiry into the subject is not possible without an understanding of the ideas presented in this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cases    2. Constitutional    3. Constitutional Law    4. Law    5. Legal Reference / Law Profession    6. United States    7. Constitutional & administrative law    8. Political Science / General    9. USA   

Reviews (1)

A gripping tale of constitutional theory and law
This book is great! Truly, Mr. DeLeo is a master on the subject. I picked this up on a reccomendation from a friend and couldnt put it down! I especially loved the briefing on the "circle-square effect". Never before have I been so titilated by a the law in all its glory. Mr. DeLeo takes what would otherwise be a bland subject and breathes life into it in a manner that is like unto a gripping thriller similar to any good John Grisham novel! Be sure to pick this today! I bought 3 more copies for my friends and we are all now excitedly awaiting the sequel! Congrats on a job well done! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business/Economics    3. Constitutional    4. Constitutional Law    5. General    6. Law    7. Legal Profession    8. United States    9. Business & Economics / General    10. Constitutional & administrative law   

Editorial Review

"This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren ... should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties." So wrote John Jay, one of the revolutionary authors of Read more

Reviews (48)

Spark Some Thought
"The disciplined armies always kept on foot on the continent of Europe, though they bear a malignant aspect to liberty and oeconomy, have notwithstanding been productive of the signal advantage, of rendering sudden conquests impracticable, and of preventing that rapid desolation, which used to mark the progress of war, prior to their introduction." I assume this is a quote from the federalist papers. Nevertheless, I had some interesting thoughts from the passage and wish to expound.
Excellent material, difficult to read
I rate this book 5 stars because the content is so vital to understanding what our founding fathers were thinking as they tried to convince the Americans in New York that a "Foederal" government, rather than individual states or territories, was the best way to bring the new union together.
Classical political work that was vital in ratification of the Constitution
When Hamilton began the Federalist papers there were many anti- Federalists in the land urging against ratification of the Constitution. It was 1787, and Hamilton enlisted John Jay and James Madison to work with him on the papers. In the end there were eighty- five papers, five written by Jay, twenty- eight( most probably) by Madison and the rest by Hamilton.
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Subjects:  1. Constitutional history    2. Constitutional law    3. Essays    4. Government - U.S. Government    5. History - General History    6. Politics/International Relations    7. Sources    8. United States    9. United States - Revolutionary War    10. Constitutional & administrative law    11. History / United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)    12. USA    13. c 1700 to c 1800   

Reviews (1)

I finished with more questions than answers.
I am on an endless quest, it seems; to find a book on the administrative state that is informative while being at least mildly enthusiastic about its subject. This book starts out enthusiastic. This book certainly started with enthusiasm. The first chapter, in fact, is devoted to convincing us why the administrative state is a superb American invention (a view I do not always share!) Chapter 5, which is devoted to public participation in the Admin. state also bubbles with giddiness.Read more

Subjects:  1. Administrative Law    2. Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice    3. Administrative procedure    4. Administrative regulation draf    5. Administrative regulation drafting    6. Constitutional    7. Law    8. Legal Reference / Law Profession    9. Politics/International Relations    10. United States    11. Central government policies    12. USA   

Reviews (1)

Great Book!
Perfect book for someone trying to learn immigration.Very hands on with respect to the procedure.I highly recommend! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Constitutional    2. Emigration & Immigration    3. Emigration and immigration law    4. Law    5. Legal Reference / Law Profession    6. Legal assistants    7. Paralegals & Paralegalism    8. United States