The Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights Synopsis

The Bill of Rights is a comprehensive survey of all aspects of the U.S. Bill of Rights; from its origins to its role in modern American history. Special attention is given to the organic relationship of the Bill of Rights to the original Constitution, its ongoing interpretation and incorporation by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the political and social issues it has spawned. This new edition adds new coverage of recent challenges to and reinterpretations of The Bill of Rights regarding reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, and free expression in a digital age. Essays are divided under four broad headings:

• Overviews survey the history and significance of the Bill of Rights within the broader contexts of the principles of constitutional law and U.S. legal history.
• Amendments provide individual coverage of each of the first ten amendments.
• Issues cover subjects ranging from censorship, civil rights and liberties, due process and freedom of religion, to the right to counsel and Miranda rights.
• Court Cases offer nearly 300 articles on the individual court cases through which the rights in the Bill of Rights have been defined and extended. It is through these cases that the Supreme Court has provided authoritative interpretations of the Bill of Rights, thereby establishing doctrines and principles of constitutional law.
  
  Additional appendices include a glossary, a time line, an annotated bibliography, and a table summarizing the stances on the Bill of Rights taken by every justice who has sat on the Supreme Court, along with the complete texts of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution and its amendments and a comprehensive subject index.