San Antonio College Library

The U.S. Constitution, index to the constitution.

Original Intent and the Framers of the Constitution: A Disputed Question is a unique contribution to the debate, begun by Attorney General Edwin Meese in the second Reagan administration, over the "original intentions of the Framers." Professor Jaffa agrees entirely with Meese's opinion that there is a need to confine judges to interpreting, not making law. Jaffa also agrees that original intent, rightly understood, is the only sound basis of constitutional...

"In this book, Brandon examines the breakdown of American constitutional order in the nineteenth century, paying special attention to slavery as an institution and as a subject of political rhetoric. He draws on historical narrative and constitutional theory to argue that the Constitution failed both because it denied to slaves and free blacks the means to participate in political life and because it could not reconcile the increasingly divergent...

Leonard Levy's classic work examines the circumstances that led to the writing of the establishment clause of the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ..." He argues that the framers of the Constitution intended to prohibit government aid to religion even on an impartial basis. He thus refutes the view of "nonpreferentialists," who interpret the clause as allowing such aid provided that the assistance...

Akhil Amar examines the role of search warrants, the status of the exclusionary rule, self-incrimination theory and practice, and a host of Sixth Amendment trial-related rights. Through a close and original analysis of constitutional text, history, structure, and precedent - leavened with a healthy measure of common sense - he challenges conventional wisdom on a broad range of topics. He argues that the exclusion of reliable evidence in criminal trials...

Dworkin argues that Americans have been systemically misled about what their Constitution is and how judges decide what it means. What does its abstract language mean when it is applied to the political controversies that divide Americans--about affirmative action, euthanasia, censorship, pornography, for example? Is the moral reading of the Constitution--the only reading that really makes sense--really undemocratic? In this fascinating book, Dworkin...

A history of the Federal Convention at Philadelphia in 1787 that produced the Constitution of the U.S.