Both volumes have been fully revised to include nineteen new cases. Provides a comprehensive account of the nation's defining document, examining how its provisions were originally understood by those who drafted and ratified it, and how they have since been interpreted by the Supreme Court, Congress, the President, lower federal courts, and state judiciaries. Clear and accessible chapter introductions and a careful balance between classic and recent cases provide students with a sense of how the law has been understood and construed over the years.

Author Biography

Ralph A. Rossum is Salvatori Professor of American Constitutionalism at Claremont McKenna College. He has written or co-written eight books, including his most recent, Understanding Clarence Thomas: The Jurisprudence of Constitutional Restoration (Univ. of Kansas Press, 2013). He has served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Deputy Director of its Bureau of Justice Statistics and as a board member of its National Institute of Corrections.G. Alan Tarr is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and director of the centre for State Constitutional Studies, Rutgers University, Camden. He is author of twelve books, including Without Fear or favour: Judicial Independence and Judicial Accountability in the American States (Stanford University Press) and Judicial Process and Judicial Policymaking, Sixth Edition (Cengage). He has served as a constitutional consultant in Brazil, Burma, Cyprus, Russia, and South Africa. Three times an NEH Fellow, he is currently editor of a fifty-volume reference series on state constitutions.