Constitutional Law : Cases and Materials

Since 1977 it has been our custom to publish a new edition in each Presidential Inaugural year, taking into account decisions in the previous four terms of the Supreme Court. The eleventh edition continues that tradition.

We have, however, broken with some traditions. In the past, despite our best efforts, the book has grown gradually from edition to edition - from 1225 pages in the first edition to 1732 pages in the tenth. While we have not been able to turn back the clock more than four decades, we have been able to prepare an edition that is slightly smaller than its predecessor - despite the necessity to include the substance of 431 pages of the last supplement.

It also has been our custom to cut off each new edition with the Supreme Court term that preceded it. The eleventh edition also includes one case from the Supreme Court's current term - the December 12, 2000 decision in Bush v. Gore. The editors have strong, and perhaps not impartial, views about that decision. We have not seen the book as a stage for those views. We continue to provide "the raw materials - cases, constitutional provisions and statutes - allowing teachers maximum freedom to pursue their own teaching strategies and requiring students to create their own generalizations from the materials."

There has been one significant change in organization. The current Supreme Court has been predictably and consistently divided five to four on issues concerning the scope of federal power. That issue has surfaced not only in cases arguing about "strict" or "broad" construction of Congress' legislative powers over private actors, but also in controversies over the scope of State immunity from Federal regulation, and over interpretation of the Eleventh Amendment. We have combined the last two topics in a new Chapter 5 on "State Sovereignty and Federal Regulation," which follows the discussion of "The Scope of National Power" in Chapter 4. The book's organization, however, still allows users to "structure their own courses in their own ways."