recent constitution books

I choose what I think is my book should Read – either because of the subject or because of the author. Then I postpone reading them myself so that I can read them at the same time as my students. This allowed me to react to the books and remember the nuances of the books for class discussion.

The format of the seminar is to read 6 books, each book takes two weeks, and the author comes to class during the second week to discuss the book. Now, my first book is always used as a trial run and to give students my perspective as we discuss other books. When the book is longer than 250 pages, I ask the author to tell me which 250 pages should be allocated. If I assign more than 125 pages of homework per week, I worry that students won’t read them, or won’t read them carefully enough. To help ensure they do this, students submit one-page summaries (graded on a pass/fail basis) for each half of the book. The day before the author’s visit, they submitted a 5,500-word book review, which I sent electronically to the author the day before class. (them all Read them. We’re fucked!

Students consistently tell me that the course is very enriching and helps them develop key skills. It also allows them to see how well they can find holes in the professor’s lengthy lectures. I found that, overall, students were able to overcome the weaknesses of each book (except mine, of course).

[Note to law professors: I have a budget to pay for the authors’ travel expenses. But now that we all have access to Zoom teaching, this seminar format can be replicated anywhere at zero cost. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a dozen or more such book seminars around the country? Try it. I promise you will love it.]

If you click “Read More” you’ll see why teaching this class is hugely rewarding for me. My sincere gratitude to all of these authors for traveling all the way to Washington to discuss their books with my students.

2023

2022:

2021:

• Ilan Wurman, The Second Founding: An Introduction to the 14th Amendment (2020)
• Stephen Halbrook, “The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Prerogative of the Ruling Class?” (2021)
• Donald Dreckman, The Hollow Core of Constitutional Theory: Why We Need the Framers (2021)
• Jamal Green, How Rights Go Wrong: Why Our Obsession with Rights is Tearing America Apart (2021)
• David Schwartz, The Spirit of the Constitution: A 200-year Odyssey of John Marshall and McCulloch v. Maryland (2019)

2020:

2019:

• Neal Devins, The Companies They Keep: How Partisan Divides Reached the Supreme Court (2019)
• Larry Lessig, “Loyalty and Restraint: How the Supreme Court Interprets the U.S. Constitution” (2019)
• Jonathan Gienapp, The Second Creation: Amending the United States Constitution in the Founding Era (2018)
• Rebecca Zietlow, The Forgotten Liberator: James Mitchell Ashley and the Ideological Origins of Reconstruction (2017)
• Lee Strang, The Promise of Originalism: Natural Law Interpretation of the United States Constitution (2019)

2018:

• Martha Jones, Birthright Citizen: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America (2018)
• John Compton, “The Evangelical Origins of a Living Constitution” (2014)
• Josh Chafetz, Congressional Constitution: Legislative Powers and the Separation of Powers (2017)
• Adam Carrington, Justice Stephen Field’s The Constitution of Free Cooperation: Total Freedom (2017)
• Gerard Maliocca, The Heart of the Constitution: How the Bill of Rights Became the Bill of Rights (2018)

2017:

• Barry Friedman, Unreasonable: Policing Without Consent (2017)
• Bruce Frohnen and George Carey, Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi-Law (2016)
• Jeffrey R. Stone, Sex and the Constitution (2017)
• Surya Thomas, “Missing American Jury” (2016)
• Thomas G. West, “The Political Theory of the American Founding” (2017)

2016:

• Carson Holloway, Hamilton, and Jefferson in Washington’s Administration: Complete the Founding or Destroy the Founding? (2015)
• Michael Paulson and Luke Paulson, The Constitution: An Introduction (2015)
• Thomas Leonard, “Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era” (2016)
• Tara Smith, “Judicial Review in Objective Legal Systems” (2015)
• Ilya Somin, “Holding Hands”: Kelo v. City of New London and limitations on eminent domain (2015)

2015:

• Damon Root, Overturned: The Long Battle for Control of the U.S. Supreme Court (Palgrave 2014)
• FH Buckley, Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America (Encounter 2014)
• Brad Snyder, House of Truth (Oxford, 2017) (Designated Ms.)
• Stephen Garbaum, A New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism (Cambridge, 2013)
• Laura Donohue, The Future of Foreign Intelligence (Chicago, 2016) (Designated Ms.)

Year 2014:

• Clark Neely, The Participation Clause: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution’s Promise of Limited Government (Encounter 2013)
• Thomas Healy, The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind—And the History of Free Speech in America (Metropolitan Books, 2013)
• John McGinnis and Michael Rappaport, Originalism and the Good Constitution (Harvard University, 2013)
• Stephen Griffin, The Long War and the Constitution (Harvard University, 2013)
• Garrett Epps, American Epic: Reading the United States Constitution (Oxford, 2013)
• Louis Michael Seidman, On Unconstitutionality (Oxford, 2012)

2012 (Fall):

• Gerard Magliocca, John Bingham: America’s Founding Sons (New York University, 2013) (Ms. Designated)
• Akhil Reed Amar, The Unwritten Constitution of the United States (Basic Books, 2012)
• John Inazu, “Freedom’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly” (Yale University, 2012)
• Justice Antonin Scalia, Reading the Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts (West, 2012)
• Abner Greene, The Duty to Object (Harvard University, 2012)
• Sandy Levinson, Framing: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance (Oxford, 2012)

2012 (Spring)

• Michael J. Gerhardt, The Power of Precedent (Oxford, 2008)
• Robert Bennett and Lawrence Solem, Constitutional Originalism (Cornell University, 2011)
• Gary L McDowell, Legal Language and the Foundations of American Constitutionalism (Cambridge, 2010)
• Eric Segall, “The Supreme Myth: Why the Supreme Court Is Not a Court and Its Justices Are Not Judges” (Praeger 2012)
• Michael Greve, The Upside Down Constitution (Harvard University, 2012)
• Alexander Tsesis, The Thirteenth Amendment and American Freedom (New York University, 2004)

year 2011:

• H. Jefferson Powell, Constitutional Conscience (Chicago, 2008)
• Jeremy A Rabkin, No Law of the State? (Princeton University, 2005)
• Christian G. Fritz, American Sovereignty (Cambridge, 2007)
• Timothy Sandefur, The Right to Make a Livelihood (Cato Institute, 2010)
• Sonu Bedi, Denying the Right (Cambridge, 2009)
• Alison Lacroix, The Ideological Origins of American Federalism (Harvard University, 2010)

year 2010:

• David Bernstein, Recovering Lochner (Chicago, 2011) (Designated Lady)
• Brian Tamanaha, The Formalism-Realism Divide: The Role of Politics in Judgment (Princeton University, 2009)
• Earl Maltz, Slavery and the Supreme Court, 1825-1861 (Kansas, 2009)
• Michael Wallenberg, Freedom at Last: The Civil War, Abolition, and the Thirteenth Amendment (Cambridge, 2004)
• George Thomas, Madison’s Constitution (Johns Hopkins University, 2008)
• David Strauss, The Living Constitution (Oxford, 2010)

2007:

• Alex Aleinikoff, The Facade of Sovereignty: The Constitution, the State, and American Citizenship (Harvard University, 2002)
• Dan Farber, “Kept by the People: The ‘Silent’ Ninth Amendment and the Constitutional Rights Americans Don’t Know About” (Perseus, 2007)
• Jim Fleming, Securing Constitutional Democracy: The Case for Home Rule (Chicago, 2006)
• Mark Graeber, Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil (Cambridge, 2006)
• Keith Whittington, The Political Foundations of Judicial Supremacy: Presidents, Supreme Courts, and Constitutional Leadership in American History (Princeton, 2007)

year 2006:

• Philip Hamberger, The Separation of Church and State (Harvard University, 2002)
• Kermit Roosevelt, The Myth of Judicial Activism: The Meaning of Supreme Court Decisions (Yale University, 2006)
• Elizabeth Price Foley, Liberty for All: Restoring Personal Privacy in a New Era of Public Morality (Yale University, 2006)
• John Yoo, The Power of War and Peace: Constitutional Law and Foreign Affairs after 9/11 (Chicago, 2005)
• Sanford Levinson, Our Undemocratic Constitution: What Went Wrong with the Constitution (And How We the People Can Fix It) (Oxford, 2006)

In 2005 (when I was teaching at Georgetown University, only Mark Tushnet, then still teaching at Georgetown University, showed up. His class visit gave me the idea to invite all authors in the future):

• Mark Tushnet, Taking the Constitution Out of the Courts’ Hands (Princeton, 2000)
• Cass R. Sunstein, One Case at a Time: Judicial Minimalism on the Supreme Court (Harvard University, 2001)
• Larry D. Kramer, The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review (Oxford, 2004)
• Daniel A. Farber and Suzanna Sherry, Desperate Search for Certainty: A Misguided Exploration of the Constitution’s Foundations (Chicago, 2004)
• James R. Stoner, Common Law Liberty: Rethinking American Constitutionalism (Kansas, 2003)