The Constitutionalist: Notes on the First Amendment

In this new edition of the acclaimed 1971 original, George Anastaplo provides us with a detailed legal, historical, and dialectical analysis of the First Amendment with special attention to the reasoning of the Founding Fathers. Heralded as a groundbreaking work on freedom of expression and constitutional rights, The Constitutionalist challenges the reader to truly understand through a legal and philosophical viewpoint the roles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press in our society, or any society. Supplementing the original text are thorough appendices, including an in-depth record of Anastaplo's own remarkable bar admission case, and extensive notes exploring a range of topics from important political events to the nature of American institutions, as well as a wealth of discriminating references and commentary pulling from anthropology, sociology, psychology, and literature. This book is essential and engrossing reading for law students, legal scholars, and anyone interested in the development and application of free speech and the First Amendment.