American Constitutional Law

Donald Grier Stephenson, Jr. is Charles A. Dana Professor of Government, Emeritus, at Franklin and Marshall College where he taught from 1970 until 2017. Reared on a farm near Covington, Georgia, he is a graduate of Davidson College (1964) and received the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University in 1966 and 1967, respectively. Between 1968 and 1970 he was in the United States Army, completing his service at the rank of captain. He is author of Campaigns and the Court: The U.S. Supreme Court in Presidential Elections (1999), The Waite Court (2003), and The Right to Vote (2004), and is coauthor of American Constitutional Law (18th ed. 2022 and Introduction to American Government (11th ed., 2021). He writes “The Judicial Bookshelf” for the Journal of Supreme Court History. Alpheus Thomas Mason (late) was McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus at Princeton University.

Introduction: A Political Supreme Court

1. Jurisdiction and Organization of the Federal Courts

2. The Constitution, the Supreme Court, and Judicial Review

3. Congress and the President

4. Federalism

5. The Electoral Process

6. The Commerce Clause

7. National Taxing and Spending Power

8. Property Rights and the Development of Due Process

9. The Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment

10. Criminal Justice

11. Freedom of Expression

12. Religious Liberty

13. Privacy

14. Equal Protection of the Laws

15. Security and Freedom in Wartime and Pandemic