Vagaries and Varieties in Constitutional Interpretation

The classic study of historical and then-emerging ways in which the U.S. Constitution has been interpreted and applied, especially as regards judicial power to review congressional acts, sharing of power between states and the federal government, Lochnerism, the change in the Supreme Court during the Roosevelt years, taxing power, and interstate commerce. Powell presented this material first as lectures at Columbia Law School, and their enduring nature and historical insider-ness makes them of current interest to law professors and students, historians, and political scientists who see constitutional structure, and not only rights and liberties, as crucial to understanding U.S. government, the federal-state balance, and the infusion of government into economic life. 

Presented by Quid Pro Books as part of the 'Legal Legends' Series, the ebook features quality formatting, hyperaccurate proofreading from the original, linked notes, and active Table of Contents. It even includes the original index, hyperlinked to the pages listed for each entry. The helpful foreword by Paul Freund from the original print edition is retained. The new digital edition features 2012 Notes of the Series Editor by Steven Alan Childress, J.D., Ph.D., a senior law professor at Tulane University. 

Thomas Reed Powell was valued not only in law but also taught political science and edited political journals; he was known for seeing pragmatic approaches to constitutional questions that went beyond legal doctrine. His prose style is pithy, witty, and straightforward. Summing up a career of constitutional scholarship in six insightful lectures, Powell turned the resulting book into his legacy.