American Constitutional Law

Ralph A. Rossum is Henry Salvatori Professor Emeritus at Claremont McKenna College. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago and is the author of several books, including: Understanding Clarence Thomas: The Jurisprudence of Constitutional Restoration (2014); The Supreme Court and Tribal Gaming: California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians (2011); Antonin Scalia’s Jurisprudence: Text and Tradition (2006); Federalism, the Supreme Court, and the Seventeenth Amendment: The Irony of Constitutional Democracy (2001); Congressional Control of the Judiciary: The Article III Option (1988); The American Founding: Politics, Statesmanship, and the Constitution (1981); Reverse Discrimination: The Constitutional Debate (1979); and The Politics of the Criminal Justice System: An Organizational Analysis (1978). He has served in the US Department of Justice as deputy director of its Bureau of Justice Statistics and as a board member of its National Institute of Corrections. He recently served as a member of the California Advisory Committee, US Commission on Civil Rights.G. Alan Tarr is Board of Governors Professor Emeritus and the founder and former Director of the Center for State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey. He received his doctorate from the University of Chicago. Professor Tarr is the author of several books, including Judicial Process and Judicial Policymaking (6th edition, 2013), Without Fear or Favor: Judicial Independence and Judicial Accountability in the States (2012), Understanding State Constitutions (1998), and State Supreme Courts in State and Nation (1988). He is coeditor of the three-volume State Constitutions for the Twenty-First Century (2005), Constitutional Dynamics in Federal Systems: Subnational Perspectives (2012), Constitutional Origins, Structure, and Change in Federal Countries (2005), and several other volumes. Three times the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and more recently a Fulbright Fellow, Professor Tarr has served as a consultant to the US Department of State, the American Bar Association, the National Center for State Courts, and several state governments. He has lectured on American constitutionalism and federalism throughout the United States, as well as in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.Vincent Phillip Muñoz is Tocqueville Professor of Political Science, Concurrent Professor of Law, and Founding Director of the Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government at the University of Notre Dame. He received his BA from Claremont McKenna College, MA from Boston College, and PhD from The Claremont Graduate School. Professor Muñoz is author of Religious Liberty and the American Founding: Natural Rights and the Original Meanings of the First Amendment Religion Clauses (2022) and God and the Founders: Madison, Washington, and Jefferson (2009), and editor of Religious Liberty and the American Supreme Court: The Essential Cases and Documents (second edition, 2025).John C. Yoo is Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the School of Civic Leadership and the University of Texas at Austin and the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He earned his JD from Yale Law School and AB from Harvard University. Professor Yoo is co-author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court (2023), and author of Defender-in-Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power (2020); Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War (2017), Point of Attack: Preventive War, International Law, and Global Welfare (2014), Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush (2010), The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11 (2006), and War By Other Means: An Insider’s Account of the War on Terror (2006). Professor Yoo has served in all three branches of government, including as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Praise for American Constitutional Law:"An excellent two-volume constitutional law case book with sophisticated introductions."Saul Brenner, University of North Carolina at Charlotte"An excellent set of volumes for teaching constitutional law to undergraduates. The approach is both scholarly and highly accessible. It is also organized in a way that gives instructors the flexibility to formulate their own approach to teaching constitutional law."Michael Zarkin, Westminster College"This casebook is ideal for undergraduate classes in constitutional law. The case selection thoughtfully balances the old and new; the editing of cases is done with precision and care. The editors’ introductory essays are models of clarity, organization, and focus on the crucial problems of constitutional interpretation. The essays are attentive to doctrinal details without losing sight of the Constitution as a whole. The supporting website provides a rich source of recent and earlier decisions that provide flexibility for instructors. American Constitutional Law is, in sum, the class of its class."G. Roger McDonald, John Jay College of Criminal Justice"These volumes are a sound, balanced introduction into the study of constitutional law. The abridged cases are substantive but still accessible to the average undergraduate student and provide a solid basis for gaining a foothold in the discipline and for generating vigorous discussion and debate on the case law."Darren Patrick Guerra, Biola University"Its greatest strengths are threefold. First, the case excerpts are ideal for undergraduate students who are being exposed to the reading of case law for the first time and who are not familiar with legal nomenclature. … The second great virtue of the book is that the introductory sections of each chapter, which precede the case law, succinctly summarize the law, history, and politics related to the cases that students are about to encounter. These introductions do an excellent job setting the context for the case law. … The third great virtue of the text is that the editors do as good a job as any constitutional law text tying the case law to what the framers of the constitutional provisions at issue had to say. This allows students to understand the original meaning of the Constitution in a way they might seldom appreciate with other textbooks that disregard or object to such approaches to constitutional law."Anthony A. Peacock, Utah State University

• 1. Interpretation of Constitution 2. Constitutional Adjudication 3. The Judicial Power 4. The Legislative Branch 5. The Executive Branch 6. War and Foreign Affairs 7. Federalism 8. The Exercise of National Power 9. The Exercise of State Power 10. The Constitution of Native American Tribes 11. The Contract Clause 12. Economic Due Process and the Takings Clause