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A Short & Happy Guide to the First Amendment
This concise guide breaks down a complicated topic—the First Amendment—and makes it understandable and fun. The book walks briskly through cases, rules, and theories to draw a reader-friendly road map of the First Amendment. Two law school deans and First Amendment enthusiasts, Bob Power and Mark Alexander, synthesize principles with memorable examples and a sharp wit. Their analysis reveals the common sense behind much First Amendment law, and at the same time identifies some of its flaws and inconsistencies. The book addresses the deep historic roots as well as current problems such as campaign finance, hate speech, and electronic communications. It is equally useful as a general guide as it is for preparing for class and for exams (including the bar!).
172 pages, Paperback
Published April 8, 2016
12 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Robert Power
29 books4 followersTHE surprising thing about Professor Robert Power is that he had time to write Meatloaf in Manhattan, which has won the $2000 second prize in The Age short-story award.
By day, Power is principal for harm reduction at the Burnet Institute and has specialised for more than 25 years in HIV prevention. It has taken him around the world advising on public health and introducing social behavioural programs, most recently in a prison in Indonesia.
It helps that he has always written. Before leaving London five years ago, where he was a professor at University College, he not only wrote academic material but also produced journalism for publications such as the New Statesman magazine and Time Out. His first serious piece of journalism about the drugs world in South America was written while he was in Bogota.
''I don't watch television, I get up early and I write quickly,'' he says. His first novel, In Search of the Blue Tiger, which was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's unpublished manuscript award three years ago, is being published in March by Transit Lounge, he has another waiting for a spot in the publishing program, has finished a third and has embarked on a fourth.
Power's winning story tells of a man staying with a blind friend in New York who then himself pretends to be blind and inveigles his way through the defences of a lonely diner waitress. Power says he did once stay with a blind New York lawyer who stacked his apartment with braille copies of newspapers and recorded baseball moments from the radio. ''But otherwise the rest is fiction.''
One of the judges of the Age award, novelist Anson Cameron, said Meatloaf in Manhattan had a sort of one-foot-in-the-air clownishness rare in short stories, where reverence was often deemed mandatory. Its humility allowed it to be as ''deviously weighty as a good pop song''. And another judge, writer Catherine Ford, said it had a winning wit and a good grasp of structure, pace, the handling of character and dialogue. ''The first-person narrator plays a nice game with the reader, teasing, provoking, confounding. The author's voice was so appealing, I'd have been more than happy to keep reading.''
Born in Dublin, Robert now lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and his youngest son. In 2011 he was a winner in The Age Short Story Prize for his story Meatloaf in Manhattan.
By day, Power is principal for harm reduction at the Burnet Institute and has specialised for more than 25 years in HIV prevention. It has taken him around the world advising on public health and introducing social behavioural programs, most recently in a prison in Indonesia.
It helps that he has always written. Before leaving London five years ago, where he was a professor at University College, he not only wrote academic material but also produced journalism for publications such as the New Statesman magazine and Time Out. His first serious piece of journalism about the drugs world in South America was written while he was in Bogota.
''I don't watch television, I get up early and I write quickly,'' he says. His first novel, In Search of the Blue Tiger, which was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's unpublished manuscript award three years ago, is being published in March by Transit Lounge, he has another waiting for a spot in the publishing program, has finished a third and has embarked on a fourth.
Power's winning story tells of a man staying with a blind friend in New York who then himself pretends to be blind and inveigles his way through the defences of a lonely diner waitress. Power says he did once stay with a blind New York lawyer who stacked his apartment with braille copies of newspapers and recorded baseball moments from the radio. ''But otherwise the rest is fiction.''
One of the judges of the Age award, novelist Anson Cameron, said Meatloaf in Manhattan had a sort of one-foot-in-the-air clownishness rare in short stories, where reverence was often deemed mandatory. Its humility allowed it to be as ''deviously weighty as a good pop song''. And another judge, writer Catherine Ford, said it had a winning wit and a good grasp of structure, pace, the handling of character and dialogue. ''The first-person narrator plays a nice game with the reader, teasing, provoking, confounding. The author's voice was so appealing, I'd have been more than happy to keep reading.''
Born in Dublin, Robert now lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and his youngest son. In 2011 he was a winner in The Age Short Story Prize for his story Meatloaf in Manhattan.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 13, 2018
This was so helpful!
April 23, 2019
Definitely helped explain the First Amendment. :)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews