The Constitution explained A guide for every American

Genuinely revolutionary in design, amazingly compact, and suitably flexible, the U.S. Constitution has been amended only 27 times in 230 years. This handy guide is designed to "demystify and unpack" the Constitution. It will help non-experts navigate safely amidst the passionate, thorny, and devilishly nuanced debates about its authority with regard to contemporary hot-button issues like gun control, freedom of choice, and the electoral college process. Beginning with a concise account of why the framers believed a constitution was necessary, the book offers a straightforward explanation of the Constitution's first three articles (legislative, executive, judicial branches), surveys Articles IV--VII, and examines the first ten amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights. Following chapters look at the Fourteenth Amendment (citizenship, due process, equal protection of the laws) and the Twenty-First Amendment (prohibition). A brief closing chapter notes "Continuing Constitutional Controversies" such as the legitimacy of masking and vaccination requirements during COVID. Constitution Explained merits an enthusiastic recommendation for collections curated for general readership, secondary school students, and college undergraduates.

Focusing on the Constitution's history, including the Articles of Confederation, the Philadelphia Convention, the Bill of Rights, and selected other amendments, Hudson's (law, Belmont Univ.; First Things First) simply written book includes chapters ranging from four ("Articles of Confederation") to 33 pages ("First Amendment") in length and references historical and current events (President Trump's impeachments; the riot on January 6, 2021). A few topics, such as Black Lives Matter, are only mentioned as illustration captions, and Hudson does not examine potential applications of the Constitution to contemporary issues. The work ends with a six-page chapter that is more conclusion than discussion of ongoing constitutional controversies. A detailed index, which includes illustrations and cross references, lists people, court cases, places, media, organizations, and legislation and historical events. An appendix includes the full text of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and the title also includes a current bibliography. Most recent similar titles are limited to the full text of the founding documents. Three older titles--Ray Raphael's The U.S. Constitution (2017), Susan Low Bloch and Vicki C. Jackson's Federalism (2013), and John R. Vile's Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues, 1789--2010 (2010)--offer more detailed discussion. VERDICT Despite its limited coverage of amendments, this adds to the content in Bloch and Jackson's and Vile's works, and will interest general readers as well as students of political science, government, and teacher education.--Laurie Selwyn

The First Amendment "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceable to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." The First Amendment consists of the first 45 words of the Bill of Rights and consists of five freedoms: (1) religion, (2) speech, (3) press, (4) assembly and (5) petition. Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court also ruled in NAACP v. Alabama (1958) that the First Amendment protects the related freedom of association. The First Amendment serves as our blueprint for personal freedom. It ensures that we live in an open society. The First Amendment contains five freedoms: religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. Without the First Amendment, religious minorities could be persecuted, or the government could establish a single, national religion. The press could not criticize government and citizens could not mobilize for social change. This would mean we would lose our individual freedom. Freedom of Religion The first two clauses of the First Amendment -- "respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" -- are the religion clauses. The first is the Establishment Clause. The second is the Free Exercise Clause. Together, these clauses require that the government act in a neutral manner when it comes to religion. The Establishment Clause provides that church and state remain separate to a certain degree. In a letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802, President Thomas Jefferson used the phrase a "wall of separation between church and state." The U.S. Supreme Court later used Jefferson's "wall of separation" metaphor to describe the meaning of the Establishment Clause and rule that state-mandated prayer in public schools violated the Establishment Clause. The concern over separation between church of state was significant to several of the Framers, notably James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. They and some others desired to place some distance between church and state to prevent American political leaders from acting like English monarchs who were intolerant of other religious views. King Henry VIII of England was a prime example of what can happen when there is not a sufficient barrier between church and state. King Henry broke away from the Catholic Church in 1531 after the Pope refused to support his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Henry established the Protestant Church of England. In 1534, the English Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy establishing Henry as the head of the Church of England. This was a disaster for religious freedom. Later, Parliament passed the Treason Act, which effectively silenced anyone who spoke out against the King. The act was used to silence religious dissenters. Religious intolerance seemed to the standard in much of Europe, including England. Many people fled England to settle in America and the New World because of religious persecution. Religious dissenters in England were ostracized, punished and imprisoned. Modern Establishment Clause jurisprudence began with the 1947 case Everson v. Board of Education (1947). It involved a New Jersey man Arch Everson challenged a policy that provided bus transportation for students attending both public and private, including parochial, schools. Everson believed that the state should not be providing any funding or reimbursements to families whose kids attended religious schools. To Everson, this amounted to the state supporting or establishing religion. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the policy, noting that it applied to all schools, not just religious schools. But, even in his majority opinion, Justice Hugo Black took a broad view of what the Establishment Clause did. "The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state," Black wrote. "That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach. New Jersey has not breached it here." Excerpted from The Constitution Explained: A Guide for Every American by David L. Hudson All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.