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The United States Constitution: One Document, Many Choices

The United States Constitution: One Document, Many Choices

Author: John R. Vile
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781137513496
Published In: May 2015
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

HKD 1,689.87

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Contents

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The U.S. Constitution: One Document, Many Choices is designed to provide an understanding of the document both by explaining its origins in Western political thought and by describing the institutions it created. It further compares these institutions to possible alternatives (e.g., how Congress differs from a Parliament, the President differs from a monarch, and the Supreme Court differs from a bevy of Platonic Guardians).

The text explains that institutions within the national government and the division of powers between the nation and the states were designed, like limits of governmental power in the Bill of Rights and other amendments, to protect liberty. The volume is particularly suitable for students who are examining the Constitution for the first time, and it focused only on key Supreme Court decisions that have interpreted the Document.

1. Institutional Choices and the Preamble: The Constitution is a Real-world Document, Not a Utopian Blueprint

2. The Legislative Branch: It's a Congress, Not a Parliament

3. The Executive Branch: It's Headed by an Accountable Elected Official, Not a King or a Dictator

4. The Judicial Branch: It's a Group of Lawyers, Not a Bevy of Platonic Guardians

5. The Nation and the States: The Government is Federal, Not Confederal or Unitary

6. The Constitutional Amending Process: It's Difficult Because It Is Designed to Preserve the Constitution as Fundamental Law

7. The Bill of Rights and Freedom of Belief and Expression: They Provide for Liberty, Not License

8. The Bill of Rights, the Right to Security, and the Rights of the Accused and the Convicted: They Preserve the Rights of the Guilty in Order to Protect the Innocent

9. Equality and the Thirteenth through Fifteenth Amendments: It's an Equality of Opportunity, Not a Guarantee of Equal Results

10. Postscript: A Time for Reflection

11. Glossary

12. The Constitution of the United States and Its Amendments