Blackstone in America explores the creative process of transplantation - the way in which American legislators and judges refashioned the English common law inheritance to fit the republican political culture of the new nation. With current scholarship returning to focus on the transformation of Anglo-American law to 'American' law, Professor Kathryn Preyer's lifelong study of the constitutional and legal culture of the early American republic has acquired new relevance and a wider audience. The collection includes Professor Preyer's work on criminal law, the early national judiciary, and the history of the book. All nine of Professor Preyer's important and award-winning essays are easily accessible in this volume, with new introductions by three leading scholars of early American law.

A valuable resource for students, teachers, and citizens looking to better understand US Constitutional history With Liberty and Justice for All?: The Constitution in the Classroom is designed to help teachers and students generate analysis and debate in our nation's classrooms about an aspect of US history that has produced intense disagreements about rights and wrongs: constitutional history. For more than two centuries, Americans have argued about what the US Constitution permits or requires (or not), and what values and ideals it enshrines (or not)-indeed, who is to be included (or not) in the very definition of "We the People." This book provides abundant resources to explore key moments of debate about the Constitution and its meaning, focusing on fundamental questions of citizenship and rights. It analyzes American history through the use and misuse of the Constitution over time, from early disputes about liberty and slavery to more recent quarrels over equality and dignity. With a foreword by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, this book's succinct and probing essays by prize-winning historians-including Linda Greenhouse, Mary Sarah Bilder, Annette Gordon-Reed, Eric Foner, Sam Erman, Julie Suk, Laura Kalman, and Melissa Murray-provide the core of the book. Their topics encompass woman suffrage, school desegregation, Japanese internment, McCarthyism, all dramatic turning points in American history. Carefully selected and annotated primary sources and focused discussion questions provide teachers with the tools to bring constitutional history into the classroom with ease. As this book amply demonstrates, United States history is constitutional history. A companion website provides additional resources for teachers.

"The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789--1800" is a multivolume series drawing together a body of documents, from the National Archives and dozens of other repositories, that chronicles the life of the Court in its first decade. For any scholar interested in the development of the federal judicial system, this series stands as a crucial resource.

The present volume deals with suits the Supreme Court decided in 1796 and 1797, including such landmark constitutional cases as "Ware v. Hylton," "Hylton v. United States," and "Olney v. Arnold/Olney v. Dexter." In these years the Court laid the foundation for its authority to exercise judicial review, and for the first time the justices overturned the decision of a state's highest court. Two attorneys who appeared before the Court in this period were Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall. Introductory narratives and extensive annotation provide context for the wealth of documents included in this volume. Taken from official court records, as well as related correspondence, lawyers' notes, justices' notes and opinions, newspaper commentary, and pamphlets, these documents provide critical material with which to assess the inception of federal court practice and procedure.

Acclaim for the series

"A model of modern scholarly editing." -- "The Journal of American History"

" The series] is striking and remarkable for its quantity and quality of sources and its annotations." -- "Choice"

"An outstanding contribution to scholarship." -- "Constitutional Commentary"

Other volumes available in "The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789--1800" series:

Volume I: "Appointments and Proceedings" (Part 1), 0-231-08867-1; "Commentaries on Appointments and Proceedings" (Part 2), Co-edited by James R. Perry, 0-231-04552-2; Volume II: "The Justices on Circuit, 1790--1794, " 0-231-08869-8; Volume III: "The Justices on Circuit, 1795--1800, " 0-231-08870-1; Volume IV: "Organizing the Federal Judiciary: Legislation and Commentaries, " 0-231-08871-X; Volume V: "Suits Against States, " 0-231-08872-8; Volume VI: "Cases: 1790--1795, " 0-231-08873-6

Volume 5 addresses those Supreme Court cases brought against a state by a citizen of another state or foreign nation during the 1790's. This volume deals with not only the landmark case of "Chisholm v. Georgia, "in which the Court determined that it had jurisidiction over such suits, but also with six lesser-known cases in which states were sued. For each case the editors provide a historical introduction and publish the relevant documents, including court papers, personal correspondence, lawyers' notes, justices' manuscript opinions, proceedings of state legislatures, newspaper articles, and pamphlets. The documents shed light on the unique circumstances of each of these controversial suits, and reveal the extent of the discussion that the cases prompted on the general issue of state soverignty. With the ratification of the 11th Amendment, the "Chisolm"decision was overturned. This volume traces the process by which the amendment became a part of the Constitution.

A valuable resource for students, teachers, and citizens looking to better understand US Constitutional history With Liberty and Justice for All?: The Constitution in the Classroom is designed to help teachers and students generate analysis and debate in our nation's classrooms about an aspect of US history that has produced intense disagreements about rights and wrongs: constitutional history. For more than two centuries, Americans have argued about what the US Constitution permits or requires (or not), and what values and ideals it enshrines (or not)-indeed, who is to be included (or not) in the very definition of "We the People." This book provides abundant resources to explore key moments of debate about the Constitution and its meaning, focusing on fundamental questions of citizenship and rights. It analyzes American history through the use and misuse of the Constitution over time, from early disputes about liberty and slavery to more recent quarrels over equality and dignity. With a foreword by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, this book's succinct and probing essays by prize-winning historians-including Linda Greenhouse, Mary Sarah Bilder, Annette Gordon-Reed, Eric Foner, Sam Erman, Julie Suk, Laura Kalman, and Melissa Murray-provide the core of the book. Their topics encompass woman suffrage, school desegregation, Japanese internment, McCarthyism, all dramatic turning points in American history. Carefully selected and annotated primary sources and focused discussion questions provide teachers with the tools to bring constitutional history into the classroom with ease. As this book amply demonstrates, United States history is constitutional history. A companion website provides additional resources for teachers.

Volume one presents documents that establish the structure of the Supreme Court and recount the official record of the Court's activity during its first decade. It serves as an introduction and reference tool for the subsequent volumes in the series.

Volume 6 covers the beginnings of federal admiralty and equity jurisprudence, habeas corpus, judicial review, forreign affairs, and the relationship between the national judiciary and state courts. Also included is an appendix of documents pertaining to the question of whether the Supreme Court could issue advisory opinions at the request of the executive branch. A narrative history introduces each case, and the documents are arranged chronologically thereafter. The texts of many of them had to be reconstructed from originals that were severely damaged or written in shorthand. Taken from official court records, as well as related correspondence, lawyers' notes, justices' notes and opinions, newspaper commentary, and pamphlets, these documents provide critical material with which to assess the initial development of federal court practice and procedure.

The Judiciary Act of 1789 established a federal court system, an experiment that became one of the outstanding features of American democracy. This volume of essays analyzes the Act from political and legal perspectives while enhancing our understanding of the history of the judiciary and its role in constitutional interpretation. Using previously unavailable material, the first essays examine the importance of political considerations and the intended implementations of constitutional imperatives. They also focus on such topics as ambiguities in the Judiciary Act's division of jurisdiction between state courts and the newly created federal system; early interpretations of various sections of the Act; whether the Act presupposed a federal common law; the problem of dual office holdings by judges; and early perceptions of justice in the courts of frontier America. The book concludes with an essay exploring the attitudes of the Framers towards judicial independence. This interdisciplinary look at one of the most important statues enacted by Congress will interest not only law professors, historians, and political scientists, but also judges, lawyers, and anyone interested in constitutional law and legal history.

Government seizure of the nation's strikebound steel mills on 8 April 1952 stands as one of President Harry S Truman's most controversial actions, representing an unprecedented use of presidential power. On 8 June 1952 the United States Supreme Court invalidated Truman's order with its monumental decision in "Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer." The history and significance of this case constitute the subject of Maeva Marcus's meticulously researched, brilliantly analyzed, and authoritative study. From Truman's initial assertion of "inherent" executive power under the Constitution to the High Court's seven opinions, Marcus assesses the influence of the case on the doctrine of separation of powers and, specifically, the nature and practice of executive authority. First published in 1977 (Columbia University Press), and reissued here in paperback with a new foreword by Louis Fisher, this book remains the definitive account of the Steel Seizure incident and its political and legal ramifications.

The eight volumes of "The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789 1800" gather together documents from the National Archives and dozens of additional repositories, resulting in a rich portrait of the first decade of the Court. It is an invaluable series for any scholar interested in the development of the Supreme Court as an institution and in the cases that came before the Court during its infancy.

The final volume of "The Documentary History" concerns cases heard between 1798 and 1800. In these years, the United States was virtually at war with France, and issues arising from that conflict came before the Court. For example, in "Baas v. Tingey," the Court ruled that although Congress had not declared war, France should still be considered an "enemy." But the Court's docket also featured cases that arose naturally in the burgeoning nation. Several involved disputes over land-most notably a controversy centering on a substantial strip of territory running along the southern border of New York. The Court heard cases concerning bills of exchange, bankruptcy, and violations of trade laws and resolved a number of procedural issues. In "Bingham v. Cabot II," the justices ruled that the citizenship of the parties had to be explicitly stated in the pleadings for the federal courts to assume jurisdiction on the basis of diversity.

During this period, The Supreme Court continued to exercise the authority of judicial review, though it did not strike down a statute. In both "Calder v. Bull" and "Cooper v. Telfair," however, it did examine the constitutionality of state laws. Documents of particular interest in this volume are the notes of Justice WilliamPaterson and William Tilghman, a member of the Supreme Court bar, but all of the cases are accompanied by engaging narratives that guide the reader through the facts and the intricacies of the judicial process.

Volume 2 details the workings of the Court's experimental practice of sending Justices around the country to serve as judges at sessions of the various federal circuit courts. The documents in this volume reveal that the justices quickly voiced bitter complaints about the demands of their circuit duties. They also questioned the propriety--and perhaps constitutionality--of assigning the same individuals to act as superior and inferior court judges. The documents in this volume also touch upon topics that figured prominently in the law and politics of the era: neutrality, the boundary between state and federal crimes, the constitutional prohibition against impairing the obligations of contracts, and the relationship between law and morality.

Volume one presents documents that establish the structure of the Supreme Court and recount the official record of the Court's activity during its first decade. It serves as an introduction and reference tool for the subsequent volumes in the series.