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Constitutional Law for a Changing America
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Constitutional Law for a Changing America
Institutional Powers and Constraints

Twelfth Edition
March 2025 | 728 pages | CQ Press
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In Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Institutional Powers and Constraints, bestselling authors Lee Epstein, Kevin T. McGuire, and Thomas G. Walker show students how political factors influence judicial decisions and shape the development of constitutional law. The Twelfth Edition, updated with additional material such as recent court rulings, more than 500 supplemental cases, and greater coverage of executive, legislative, and judicial power, facilitates a deeper understanding of how the U.S. Constitution defines what institutions can and cannot do.

This book is ideal for Constitutional Law courses in the two-semester sequence that covers powers and constraints. For courses that cover both rights and liberties and the separation of powers in one semester, see Constitutional Law for a Changing America: A Short Course.
 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Author
 
Part One: The U.S. Constitution
 
Chapter One: Understanding the U.S. Supreme Court
Processing Supreme Court Cases

 
Supreme Court Decision Making: Legalism

 
Supreme Court Decision Making: Realism

 
Conducting Research on the Supreme Court

 
Annotated Readings

 
 
Part Two: Institutional Authority
 
Chapter Two: The Judiciary
Establishment of the Federal Judiciary

 
Judicial Review

 
Constraints on Judicial Power: Article III

 
Constraints on Judicial Power: Judicial Self-Restraint and the Separation of Powers System

 
Annotated Readings

 
 
Chapter Three: The Legislature
Article I: Historical Overview

 
Congressional Authority over Internal Affairs: Institutional Independence and Integrity

 
Introduction to Legislative Powers

 
Enumerated Powers

 
Implied Powers and the Necessary and Proper Clause

 
Congress’s Intepretation of the Constitution

 
Annotated Readings

 
 
Chapter Four: The Executive
The Structure of the Presidency

 
The President’s Constitutional Authority and Tools for Executing It

 
The Faithful Execution of the Laws: Defining the Contours of Presidential Power

 
Domestic Powers of the President

 
The Role of the President in External Relations

 
Annotated Readings

 
 
Chapter Five: Interbranch Interactions
Debates over Interbranch Interactions

 
Domestic Powers

 
Powers over Foreign Affairs

 
Annotated Readings

 
 
Part Three: Nation-State Relations
 
Chapter Six: Federalism
The Doctrinal Cycle of Nation-State Relations

 
The Eleventh Amendment and Sovereign Immunity

 
National Preemption of State Laws

 
Annotated Readings

 
 
Chapter Seven: The Commerce Power
Foundations of the Commerce Power

 
Attempts to Define the Commerce Power in the Wake of the Industrial Revolution

 
The Supreme Court and the New Deal

 
The Era of Expansive Commerce Clause Jurisprudence

 
Limits on the Commerce Power: The Republican Court Era

 
Commerce Power of the States

 
Annotated Readings

 
 
Chapter Eight: The Power to Tax and Spend
The Framers and Defining the Financial Powers

 
Direct Taxes and the Power to Tax Income

 
Taxation of Exports

 
Intergovernmental Tax Immunity

 
Taxation as a Regulatory Power

 
Taxing and Spending for the General Welfare

 
Restrictions on the Revenue Powers of the States

 
Annotated Readings

 
 
Part Four: Economic Liberties
 
Chapter Nine: The Contract Clause
The Framers and the Contract Clause

 
John Marshall and the Contract Clause

 
Decline of the Contract Clause: From the Taney Court to the New Deal

 
Modern Applications of the Contract Clause

 
Annotated Readings

 
 
Chapter Ten: Economic Substantive Due Process
Development of Substantive Due Process

 
The Roller-Coaster Ride of Substantive Due Process: 1898–1923

 
The Heyday of Substantive Due Process: 1923–1936

 
The Depression, the New Deal, and the Decline of Economic Substantive Due Process

 
Substantive Due Process: Contemporary Relevance

 
Annotated Readings

 
 
Chapter Eleven: The Takings Clause
Protecting Private Property from Government Seizure

 
What Is a Taking?

 
What Is a Public Use?

 
What Is Just Compensation?

 
Annotated Readings

 
 
Reference Material

Supplements

Instructor Resources
Online resources included with this text

The online resources for your text are available via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site, which offers access to all text-specific resources, including a test bank and editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides.

Case Archive
The authors have excerpted each case in the same format as those in the text, featuring the justices' votes, a summary of case facts, and a carefully edited version of the justices' opinions.

For additional information, custom options, or to request a personalized walkthrough of these resources, please contact your sales representative.
Key features
NEW TO THIS EDITION:
  • Strengthened the distinctive features of earlier versions by maintaining a focus on enduring issues of constitutional law while incorporating new cases that reflect changes in the Court’s thinking or in the composition of the Court itself through the most recent term (2024). Highlights include:
    • Chapter 2: Revisits the decision in Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, a case that presents the questions of when litigants have legal standing to go to court.
    • Chapter 4: Excerpts Trump v. United States, the Court’s recent decision concerning the immunity from legal liability that presidents enjoy when engaged in official acts.
    • Chapter 7: In National Park Producers Council v. Ross, the authors include the Court’s latest decisions on the dormant commerce clause. Here the justices resolve a clash between a state’s right to establish rules for the sale of products within a state and the national interest in protecting against states interfering with interstate commerce.
    • Chapter 8: Revisits the decision in Sonzinksy v. United States, an older case that speaks to a policy issue of more recent concern, the control of gun violence. Here the Court addresses whether Congress can use its taxing power as a way of discouraging the use of weapons commonly used in criminal activity.
  • Each chapter is thoroughly updated for currency and scholarship and reflects the most recent court rulings.
  • Constitutional questions pertaining to federalism and the separation of powers are more fully integrated into relevant chapters.
KEY FEATURES:
  • Facts and Arguments sections before every case help students understand key rulings.
  • A range of Aftermath boxes for selected cases provide final chapters to these stories, stimulating interesting discussions about the decisions’ impacts on the lives of ordinary Americans.
  • Global Perspective boxes showcase laws and legal practices of other countries, enabling students to compare and contrast U.S. Supreme Court decisions, on a wide range of issues such as the death penalty and libel, with policies developed in other countries.
  • Tables and figures on Court trends bring out the rich legal, social, historical, economic, and political contexts in which the Court reaches its decisions.

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