Jumpstart Constitutional Law: Reading and Understanding Constitutional Law Cases

Unlike Torts and Contracts, in which the facts are relatively consistent, cases that arise under the Constitution spring from a vast array of activities and appear to have little or no common thread.

Shedding light on the threshold issues and substantive questions common to all constitutional law cases, Jumpstart Constitutional Law: Reading and Understanding Constitutional Law Cases, brings it all into focus.

Key to constructing cogent answers on a Constitutional Law exam, Jethro K. Lieberman’s straightforward approach teaches students how to spot the issues and respond to the relevant questions in any constitutional law case.

Jumpstart Constitutional Law features:

• Perspective—A tour of the American Constitution from a bird’s-eye-view
• Understanding threshold issues
• Who may decide Constitutional disputes?
• Under what circumstances may a court decide a case?
• Must the court take and answer a constitutional question in a proper case?
• Identifying substantive issues
• Determining the scope of governmental powers
• Federalism, and the relationship between federal and state powers
• Constitutional restraints that limit the exercise of governmental power
• Interpreting the Constitution
• Using tests to determine the limits of power and the extent of rights
• Tools of analysis for interpreting the Constitution
• The role of precedent and change
• Get into training—real preparation for taking the Constitutional Law exam
• A program for effective studying
• Sample constitutional law exam questions and answers
• Exam-taking strategies