Edward S. Corwin's Constitution and What It Means Today: 1978 Edition

For over seventy-five years Edward S. Corwin's text has been a basic reference in the study of U.S. Constitutional Law. The 14th edition, the first new edition since 1973, brings the volume up to date through 1977. In this classic work, historian Edward Corwin presented the text of the U.S. Constitution along with his own commentary on its articles, sections, clauses, and amendments. Corwin was a renowned authority on constitutional law and jurisprudence, and was hired at Princeton University by Woodrow Wilson in 1905. Far from being an impersonal textbook, Corwin's edition was full of opinion. Not afraid to express his own strong views of the development of American law, Corwin offered piquant descriptions of the debates about the meaning of clauses, placing recent decisions of the court "in the familiar setting of his own views." The favor of his style is evident in his comments on judicial review ("American democracy's way of covering its bet") and the cabinet ("an administrative anachronism" that should be replaced by a legislative council "whose daily salt does not come from the Presidential table"). Corwin periodically revised the book for nearly forty years, incorporating into each new edition his views of new Supreme Court rulings and other changes in American law. Although Corwin intended his book for the general public, his interpretations always gained the attention of legal scholars and practitioners. The prefaces he wrote to the revised editions were often controversial for the views he offered on the latest developments of constitutional law, and the book only grew in stature and recognition. After his death in 1963, other scholars prepared subsequent editions, fourteen in all.

*FrontMatter, pg. i*PREFACE, pg. vii*CONTENTS, pg. ix*Some Judicial Diversities, pg. xiii*THE PREAMBLE, pg. 1*ARTICLE I. THE NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE POWERS, pg. 5*ARTICLE II. THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE POWER, pg. 148*ARTICLE III. THE NATIONAL JUDICIAL POWER, pg. 204*ARTICLE IV. THE FEDERAL ARTICLE, pg. 246*ARTICLE V. THE AMENDING POWER, pg. 268*ARTICLE VI. THE SUPREMACY OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT WITHIN ITS ASSIGNED FIELD, pg. 272*ARTICLE VII. THE SCHEDULE, pg. 284*Purpose of, pg. 285*AMENDMENT I. Freedom of Worship, Speech, Press, and Assembly, pg. 286*AMENDMENTS II AND III. The Right to Bear Arms and Ban on Quartering Soldiers on Householders, pg. 340*AMENDMENT IV. Ban on "Unreasonable Searches and Seizures", pg. 341*AMENDMENT V. The Grand Jury Process, Rights of Accused Persons, the "Due Process of Law" and "Just Compensation" Clauses, pg. 368*AMENDMENT VI. Trial by Jury, Further Rights of Accused Persons, pg. 404*AMENDMENT VII. Trial by Jury in Civil Cases, pg. 427*AMENDMENT VIII. No "Cruel and Unusual Punishments", pg. 432*AMENDMENT IX. General Reservation of Fundamental Rights, pg. 440*AMENDMENT X. The Reserved Powers of the States, pg. 442*AMENDMENT XI. The National Judicial Power Curbed in Relation to the States, pg. 448*AMENDMENT XII. The Procedure of Electing the President Altered, pg. 452*AMENDMENT XIII. Slavery Abolishe, pg. 455*AMENDMENT XIV. Civil Rights versus the States, pg. 460*AMENDMENT XV. Negro Suffrage, pg. 532*AMENDMENT XVI. Power of Congress to Tax Incomes, pg. 539*AMENDMENT XVII. Popular Election of Senators, pg. 543*AMENDMENT XVIII. National Prohibition, pg. 544*AMENDMENT XIX. Woman Suffrage, pg. 545*AMENDMENT XX. Inauguration of the President and the Assembling of Congress Put Forward, Succession to the Presidency Further Provided for, pg. 546*AMENDMENT XXI. National Prohibition Repealed, pg. 548*AMENDMENT XXII. Anti-Third Term, pg. 550*AMENDMENT XXIII. Presidential Electors for District of Columbia, pg. 551*AMENDMENT XXIV. Qualifications of Electors; Poll Tax, pg. 551*AMENDMENT XXV. Succession to Presidency and Vice- Presidency; Disability of President, pg. 552*AMENDMENT XXVI. Right to Vote; Citizens Eighteen Years of Age or Older, pg. 555*PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT, pg. 557*EPILOGUE, pg. 560*TEXT OF THE CONSTITUTION, pg. 562*TABLE OF CASES, pg. 583*INDEX, pg. 645