Introduction

This text is a work in progress and was born somewhat out of necessity due to the cost of traditional constitutional law casebooks. That being said, the ebook and open platform allow for some additional niceties that are not traditionally available to students in the classroom. Primarily, the book can both highlight original texts (i.e. cases) but also allows for the incorporation of learning tools. Particularly, as we progress through the course you will be able to follow identify and follow the passages utilized in class through the use of dynamic highlighting. Additionally, supplemental information is provided that would not ordinarily be available in a traditional constitutional law casebook. This reduces the need to supplement the casebook material through handouts, printouts, or posts on available learning management systems.

The cases are drawn from the Caselaw Access Project, a project operated bythe Harvard Law School Library to "democratize" and expand public access to U.S. legal information. At present, the collection has more than 40 million pages of courts related documents, including all recorded federal cases. In the cases of this textbook, these cases have been edited for length. Specifically, non-essential footnotes, concurrences, and dissents are hidden through the use of ellipses (i.e. "..."). If you are utilizing the digital copy of this text through the H20 platform you can click on those ellipses to view the removed content. For the most part, the primary decision for each case has been left in its entirety in order to provide proper context and encourage exploration of the cases. Many minor edits were made to improve readability and to correct issues relating to modern digital publications. 

Case selection is done in a way to suit the needs of a two-course United States Constitutional Law sequence in an undergraduate environment. The first of these classes and the focus of this casebook explores federalism (particularly the historical evolution), the separation of powers with a federal system, and civil rights. 

In order to secure the best experience, students are encouraged to utilize the e-version of the text through the H20 open casebook website. However, pdf, ePub, and MOBI formats are available to download through our Learning Management System (Blackboard). These formats can be placed on an Amazon Kindle Device, iPad, etc., or even printed for reference and use. 

Ultimately, this is an ongoing project - but the cost is $0.