The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation: Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 30, 1952
1861
The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation: Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 30, 1952
1861
The Constitution is just 4,500 words of deliberately vague principles. What those words actually mean in practice has been decided by generations of Supreme Court justices, and this volume is the definitive record of those decisions. Prepared by the Congressional Research Service and edited by constitutional scholar Edward S. Corwin, this annotation project collects and analyzes nearly 6,000 Supreme Court cases that have interpreted every article and amendment. It shows you not just what the Constitution says, but what it has meant in the hands of the justices who swore to uphold it. Each section traces how constitutional language has been stretched, contested, and redefined across two centuries of American life. This is not a history book or a legal textbook in the conventional sense. It is a map of how the supreme law of the land has actually functioned in practice, from Marbury v. Madison to Brown v. Board of Education and beyond. For anyone who wants to understand why constitutional arguments matter, who wants to see the document as a living framework rather than a sacred relic, this remains the essential reference.
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“Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates in all future periods of this commonwealth to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them, especially the university at Cambridge, public schools, and grammar schools in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, rewards and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings, sincerity, good humor, and all social affections, and generous sentiments among the people. ””
— Unknown
“In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.””
— Unknown
“When describing the University of Virginia: Here, We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.””
— Unknown
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.””
— Unknown
“Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred””
— Unknown
“granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall,””
— Unknown
“America is a land of opportunity, not entitlement, which is clearly spelled out by our inspired Founding Fathers who wrote the U.S. Constitution.””
— Unknown
“Response: The First Amendment protects a speaker’s right to speak and the listeners’ right to listen. Hecklers who shout down speakers or disrupt proceedings illegally violate the rights of everyone present who came to both speak and to be spoken to.””
— Unknown
