American Government: Books

Part of a series of books on the amendments to the constitution.

Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991. He was the first African American to hold that position, and was one of the most influential legal actors of his time. Before being appointed to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson, Marshall was a lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Federal Judge (1961-1965), and Solicitor General of the United States (1965-1966). Marshall won twenty-nine of thirty-two cases before the Supreme Court – most notably the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, which held segregated public schools unconstitutional. Marshall spent his career fighting racial segregation and legal inequality, and his time on the court establishing a record for supporting the "voiceless American." He left a legacy of change that still affects American society today.

Through this concise biography, accompanied by primary sources that present Marshall in his own words, students will learn what Marshall did (and did not do) during his life, why those actions were important, and what effects his efforts had on the larger course of American history.

A fascinating look at history in the makingand an eye-opening presentation of some remarkably colorful rhetoricLandmark Debates in Congress is a one-volume resource to more than 50 pivotal congressional debates. From colonial independence and individual rights to slavery, territorial expansion, and presidential powers, debates include the Bill of Rights (1789), the Revenue Act of 1894 (the origin of the income tax), FDR's court-packing plan (1937), Medicare and Medicaid (1965), Richard Nixon's 1974 impeachment, and the Iraq War resolution (2002).

Focusing on the impact of significant Supreme Court decisions onthe rights and freedoms of the individual,The Supreme Court and Individual Rights provides full coverage of the freedoms enumerated in the Bill of Rights.

For more than two centuries, the U.S. Supreme Court has provided a battleground for nearly every controversial issue in our nation's history. Now a veteran team of talented historians-including the editors of the acclaimed Landmark Law Cases and American Society series--have produced the most readable, astute, and up-to-date single-volume history of this venerated institution, as engaging for general readers as it is rigorous for scholars.
The Supreme Court chronicles an institution that dramatically evolved from six men meeting in borrowed quarters to the most closely watched tribunal in the world. Underscoring the close connection between law and politics, the authors highlight essential issues, cases, and decisions within the context of the times in which the decisions were handed down. Deftly combining doctrine and judicial biography with case law, they demonstrate how the justices have shaped the law and how the law that the Court makes has shaped our nation, with an emphasis on how the Court responded--or failed to respond--to the plight of the underdog.

This updated edition examines the impact of significant Supreme Court decisions on the Executive and Legislative branches of the U.S. government, under the U.S.Constitutions concept of Separation of Powers, as enumerated in Articles I III.

From the question of who can vote to the tricky problem of accurately organizing, running, and tabulating the results of a popular election, voting remains a work in progress in the United States. Taking a chronological approach, The Supreme Court and Elections explores the ways in which the Court has struggled with these questions throughout American history. The essays and documents in this reference illuminate the multifaceted nature of voting and election law. Topics addressed in The Supreme Court and Elections include the impact of the Civil Rights Amendments; voting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; vote denial and vote dilution; the Voting Rights Act; reapportionment and redistricting; One Person, One Vote; majority-minority districts; campaign finance reform; Bush v. Gore; and electoral administration.

We Hold These Truths. . . . presents 54 historically powerful quotes from the country's founders and founding documents and provides rich narratives that highlight their astounding, and generally unknown, origins.

This book stands against the current of judgments long settled in the schools of law in regard to classic cases such as Lochner v. New York, Near v. Minnesota, the Pentagon Papers case, and Bob Jones University v. United States. Professor Hadley Arkes takes as his subject concepts long regarded as familiar, settled principles in our law - "prior restraints," ex post facto laws - and he shows that there is actually a mystery about them, that their meaning is not as settled or clear as we have long supposed. Those mysteries have often given rise to illusions or at least a series of puzzles in our law. They have at times acted as a lens through which we view the landscape of the law. We often see what the lens has made us used to seeing, instead of seeing what is actually there. Arkes tries to show, in this text, that the logic of the natural law provides the key to this chain of puzzles.