In the fall, I teach a seminar titled “Recent Books on the Constitution.” The idea for this course came about during my visit to Georgetown in 2005 when I realized I wasn’t keeping up with the literature. To remedy this, I started assigning recent books on the Constitution to read as part of my teaching, ensuring that I actually read them. Since then, I have read a substantial number of books on the Constitution. The full list of books I have assigned is listed below.
From 2005 to present, I have assigned 95 books by 87 authors, with multiple appearances from James Fleming, Sandy Levinson, Gerard Magliocca, Eric Segall, Dan Farber, Philip Hamburger, Kim Roosevelt, and David Bernstein. This fall, I am assigning a section of my book “Our Republican Constitution: Securing the Liberty and Sovereignty of We the People,” in addition to other relevant books for the students. This year’s selected “recent books on the Constitution” are as follows:
1. Ilan Wurman, The Second Founding: An Introduction to the 14th Amendment (2020)
2. Stephen Halbrook, The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class? (2021)
3. Donald Drakeman, The Hollow Core of Constitutional Theory: Why We Need the Framers (2021)
4. Jamal Greene, How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession With Rights is Tearing America Apart (2021)
5. David Schwartz, The Spirit of the Constitution: John Marshall and the 200-Year Odyssey of McCulloch v. Maryland (2019)
I select books based on what I believe I should read, either due to the subject matter or the author. I delay reading them myself so I can read them simultaneously with the students, enabling me to react to the books alongside them and recall their nuances for class discussions.
The format of the seminar involves reading 6 books over 2 weeks each, with the author attending the class during the second week for discussion. I always start with one of my books as a trial run and to provide context for the other readings. To ensure thorough reading, I ask authors to specify which pages should be assigned, especially for longer books. Students submit summaries and critiques of the books, with no exams or papers required at the end of the course.
Feedback from students has been consistently positive, with many expressing that the course enriches their critical thinking skills. It is rewarding to see how students can identify weaknesses in the books, except for mine, collectively.
For law professors interested, the seminar format can be replicated at no cost using Zoom teaching. I invite others to try this approach, as I am confident it will be well-received.
Recommended Reads for Constitutional Law Enthusiasts
Check out these insightful books on constitutional law:
- Buckley, The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America (Encounter 2014)
- Brad Snyder, The House of Truth (Oxford 2017) (assigned ms)
- Stephen Garbaum, The New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism (Cambridge 2013)
- Laura Donohue, The Future of Foreign Intelligence (Chicago 2016) (assigned ms)
2014:
- Clark Neily, Terms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution’s Promise of Limited Government (Encounter 2013)
- Thomas Healy, The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changes His Mind – and the History of Free Speech in America (Metropolitan Books, 2013)
- John McGinnis & Michael Rappaport, Originalism and the Good Constitution (Harvard 2013)
- Stephen Griffin, Long Wars and the Constitution (Harvard 2013)
- Garrett Epps, American Epic: Reading the U.S. Constitution (Oxford 2013)
- Louis Michael Seidman, On Constitutional Disobedience (Oxford 2012)
2012 (Fall):
- Gerard Magliocca, John Bingham: America’s Founding Son (NYU, 2013) (assigned ms)
- Akhil Reed Amar, America’s Unwritten Constitution (Basic Books, 2012)
- John Inazu, Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly (Yale 2012)
- Justice Antonin Scalia, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts (West, 2012)
- Abner Greene, Against Obligation (Harvard 2012)
- Sandy Levinson, Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance (Oxford 2012)
2012 (Spring)
- Michael J. Gerhardt, The Power of Precedent (Oxford 2008)
- Robert Bennett & Lawrence Solum, Constitutional Originalism (Cornell 2011)
- Gary L McDowell, The Language of Law & the Foundations of American Constitutionalism (Cambridge 2010)
- Eric Segall, Supreme Myths: Why the Supreme Court Is Not a Court and Its Justices Are Not Judges (Praeger 2012)
- Michael Greve, The Upside-Down Constitution (Harvard 2012)
- Alexander Tsesis, The Thirteenth Amendment and American Freedom (NYU 2004)
2011:
- H. Jefferson Powell, Constitutional Conscience (Chicago, 2008)
- Jeremy A Rabkin, Law Without Nations? (Princeton, 2005)
- Christian G. Fritz, American Sovereigns (Cambridge, 2007)
- Timothy Sandefur, The Right to Earn a Living (Cato Institute, 2010)
- Sonu Bedi, Rejecting Rights (Cambridge, 2009)
- Alison LaCroix, The Ideological Origins of American Federalism (Harvard, 2010)
2010:
- David Bernstein, Rehabilitating Lochner (Chicago 2011) (assigned ms)
- Brian Tamanaha, The Formalist-Realist Divide: The Role of Politics in Judging (Princeton, 2009)
- Earl Maltz, Slavery and the Supreme Court, 1825-1861 (Kansas, 2009)
- Michael Vorenberg, Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment (Cambridge, 2004)
- George Thomas,The Madisonian Constitution (Johns Hopkins, 2008)
- David Strauss, The Living Constitution (Oxford, 2010)
2007:
- Alex Aleinikoff, Semblances of Sovereignty: The Constitution, the State, and American Citizenship (Harvard, 2002)
- Dan Farber, Retained by the People: The “Silent” Ninth Amendment and the Constitutional Rights Americans Don’t Know They Have (Perseus, 2007)
- Jim Fleming, Securing Constitutional Democracy: The Case of Autonomy (Chicago, 2006)
- Mark Graber, Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil (Cambridge, 2006)
- Keith Whittington, Political Foundations of Judicial Supremacy: The Presidency, the Supreme Court, and Constitutional Leadership in U.S. History (Princeton, 2007)
2006:
- Philip Hamburger, Separation of Church and State (Harvard, 2002)
- Kermit Roosevelt, The Myth of Judicial Activism: Making Sense of Supreme Court Decisions (Yale, 2006)
- Elizabeth Price Foley, Liberty for All: Reclaiming Individual Privacy in a New Era of Public Morality (Yale, 2006)
- John Yoo, The Powers of War and Peace : The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11 (Chicago, 2005)
- Sanford Levinson, Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) (Oxford, 2006)
2005 (Taught when I was a visitor at Georgetown. Only Mark Tushnet, who was then still on the Georgetown faculty, appeared. His class visit gave me the idea to invite all the authors in the future):
- Mark Tushnet, Taking the Constitution Away from the Courts (Princeton, 2000)
- Cass R. Sunstein, One Case at a Time: Judicial Minimalism on the Supreme Court (Harvard, 2001)
- Larry D. Kramer, The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review (Oxford, 2004)
- Daniel A. Farber, Suzanna Sherry, Desperately Seeking Certainty: The Misguided Quest for Constitutional Foundations (Chicago, 2004)
- James R. Stoner, Common Law Liberty: Rethinking American Constitutionalism (Kansas, 2003)
