This is an examination of the US constitution, providing an analysis from a legal perspective of the first six congresses constituting the federalist period. The book aims to establish that the Constitution was forged, not in the courts, but in the legislative and executive branches of government. The first half of the book is devoted to the work of the First Congress, which was virtually a continuation of the Constitutional Convention, setting up the executive cabinet departments, the judiciary, a taxation system, and a host of other institutions. The second part of the book examines the Second to the Sixth Congresses, where partisan battles arose over such controversial initiatives as the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Constitutional amendments, like all laws, may lead to unanticipated and even undesired outcomes. In this collection of original essays, a team of distinguished historians, political scientists, and legal scholars led by award-winning constitutional historian David E. Kyvig examines significant instances in which reform produced something other than the foreseen result. An opening essay examines the intentions of the Constitution's framers in creating an amending mechanism and then explores unexpected uses of that instrument. Thereafter, authors focus on the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments, addressing such subjects as criminal justice procedures, the presidential election system, the Civil War's impact on race and gender relations, the experiment in national prohibition, women's suffrage, and, finally, limits on the presidency. Together these contributions illuminate aspects of constitutional stability and evolution, challenging current thinking about reform within the formal system of change provided by Article V of the Constitution. Forcefully demonstrating that constitutional law is not immune to unanticipated consequences, the eight scholars underscore the need for care, responsibility, and historical awareness in altering the nation's fundamental law.

The Constitution in the Supreme Court: The Second Century traces the development of the Supreme Court from Chief Justice Fuller (1888-1910) to the retirement of Chief Justice Burger (1969-1986). Currie argues that the Court's work in its second century revolved around two issues: the constitutionality of the regulatory and spending programs adopted to ameliorate the hardships caused by the Industrial Revolution and the need to protect civil rights and liberties. Organizing the cases around the tenure of specific chief justices, Currie distinguishes among the different methods of constitutional exegesis, analyzes the various techniques of opinion writing, and evaluates the legal performance of different Courts. "Elegant and readable. Whether you are in favor of judicial restraint or judicial activism, whatever your feelings about the Warren Court, or the Renquist Court, this is a book that justifies serious study."--Robert Stevens, New York Times Book Review

Currie's masterful synthesis of legal analysis and narrative history, gives us a sophisticated and much-needed evaluation of the Supreme Court's first hundred years. "A thorough, systematic, and careful assessment...As a reference work for constitutional teachers, it is a gold mine."--Charles A. Lofgren, Constitutional Commentary

The Constitution in Congress series has been called nothing less than a biography of the US Constitution for its in-depth examination of the role that the legislative and executive branches have played in the development of constitutional interpretation. This third volume in the series, the early installments of which dealt with the Federalist and Jeffersonian eras, continues this examination with the Jacksonian revolution of 1829 and subsequent efforts by Democrats to dismantle Henry Clay's celebrated "American System" of nationalist economics. David P. Currie covers the political events of the period leading up to the start of the Civil War, showing how the slavery question, although seldom overtly discussed in the debates included in this volume, underlies the Southern insistence on strict interpretation of federal powers. Like its predecessors, The Constitution in Congress: Democrats and Whigs will be an invaluable reference for legal scholars and constitutional historians alike.

A masterly introduction to the United States Constitution, this slim book leads the reader through a concise overview of the document's individual articles and amendments. With clear and accessible language, Currie then examines each of the three branches of the federal government and explains the relation between the federal and state governments. He analyzes those constitutional provisions that are designed to protect citizens from governmental interference, such as the due process and equal protection clauses and the confusing first amendment provisions respecting the separation of church and state, and includes discussions of judicial review and freedom of speech and of the press.
A sympathetic yet critical guide, Currie's book enables students and laypersons to understand one of the cornerstones of the Western political tradition. The second edition, along with an updated chronology and bibliography, incorporates the Supreme Court decisions over the past decade that have affected constitutional interpretation.
"Superb . . . highly recommended for those seeking a reliable, understandable, and useful introduction to our constitution."--"Appellate Practice Journal and Update"

The 1803 purchase of the Louisiana Territory was a watershed event for the fledgling United States. Adding some 829,000 square miles of territory, the Louisiana Purchase set a striking precedent of Presidential power and brought to the surface profound legal and constitutional questions. As the nation continued to expand westward and into the Pacific and Caribbean, critical social, political and constitutional questions arose that greatly tested American resolve and reshaped the nation's founding premises. In this exciting collection, Sanford Levinson and Bartholomew Sparrow bring together noted scholars in American history, constitutional law, and political science to examine role that the Louisiana Purchase played in shaping both the expansionist policies of the nineteenth century and critical interpretations of the Constitution. The Louisiana Purchase and American Expansion, 1803 1898 provides a fascinating overview of how the U.S. Constitution and the American political system is inextricably tied to the Louisiana Purchase and the territorial expansion of the United States."

In the most thorough examination to date, David P. Currie analyzes from a legal perspective the work of the first six congresses and of the executive branch during the Federalist era, with a view to its significance for constitutional interpretation. He concludes that the original understanding of the Constitution was forged not so much in the courts as in the legislative and executive branches. Judicial review has enjoyed such success in the United States that we tend to forget that other branches of government also play a role in interpreting the Constitution. Before 1800, however, nearly all our constitutional law was made by Congress or the president, and so was much of it thereafter. Indeed a number of constitutional issues of the first importance have never been resolved by judges; what we know of their solution we owe to the legislative and executive branches, whose interpretations have established traditions almost as hallowed in some cases as the Constitution itself. The first half of this volume is devoted to the critical work of the First Congress, which was in many ways a continuation of the Constitutional Convention. In addition to setting up executive departments, federal courts, and a national bank, the First Congress imposed the first federal taxes, regulated foreign commerce, and enacted laws respecting naturalization, copyrights and patents, and federal crimes. In so doing it debated a myriad of fundamental questions about the scope and limits of its powers. Thus the First Congress left us a rich legacy of arguments over the meaning of a variety of constitutional provisions, and the quality of those arguments was impressively high. Part Two treats the Second through Sixth Congresses, where members of the legislative and executive branches continued to debate constitutional questions great and small. In addition to such familiar controversies as the Neutrality Proclamation, the Jay Treaty, and the Alien and Sedition Acts, this part traces the difficult constitutional issues that arose when Congress confronted the problems of presidential succession, legislative reapportionment, and the scope of the impeachment power. Proposals to provide relief to New England fishermen, Caribbean refugees, and the victims of a Georgia fire all helped to define the limits of Congress's power to spend. And the period ended with a burst of fireworks as Federalist congressmen concocted schemes of doubtful constitutionality in an effort to deny their defeat at the polls. Constitutional debates over some of these controversial matters tended to be highly partisan. On the whole, however, Currie argues that both Congress and the presidents during this period did their best to determine what the Constitution meant and displayed a commendable sensitivity to the demands of federalism and the separation of powers. Like its predecessors in Currie's ongoing study of the Constitution's evolution, this book will prove indispensable for scholars in constitutional law, history, and government.

Because of the judicial branch's tremendous success in reviewing legislative and executive action in the United States, legal scholars have traditionally looked mostly to the courts for guidance in interpreting the Constitution. This, the second book in David P. Currie's series, looks to the legislative and executive branches-whose members swear to uphold the Constitution just as judges do-for insights into the development of constitutional interpretation.
Having examined the Federalist period in the previous volume, Currie now turns to the period of Republican hegemony from the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson in 1801 to the inauguration of Andrew Jackson in 1829. During this time Republicans, mostly Virginians, occupied the President's House, and their party dominated Congress. Many benchmark issues were decided during this time of great leadership and controversy-the abolition of the new Circuit Courts, the Louisiana Purchase, the Burr conspiracy, the War of 1812, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Missouri Compromise. These issues, and many others, became constitutional controversies, as politicians sought to apply the broad principles laid out in the constitution to concrete, often unforeseen, events. As Currie shows, they were fought out almost exclusively in the legislative and executive arenas, not in the courts.
Although federal judges began to contribute more significantly to the interpretation of the constitution, their decisions were commonly based on the extensive discussions that had taken place in the legislative and executive branches. "And even today," Currie writes, "it is not to the courts that we owe our understanding of the constitutional issues surrounding theLouisiana Purchase, the impeachment of Justice Chase, or the Cumberland Road."
With its unique perspective and comprehensive coverage, "The Constitution in Congress" illustrates how the executive and legislative branches matched the Supreme Court in putting flesh and blood onto the skeleton of the Constitution.