This class-tested casebook: - features exceptional authors who are well-known for their scholarship - places current debates in the context of broad recurring themes: free exercise of religion in the face of government regulation, government financial assistance to religious institutions, and the role of religion in government institutions - uses notes and questions to connect constitutional and religious history to current issues - combines notes and problems to stimulate deeper understanding and the application of knowledge to new issues - focuses on the interrelation between free exercise and establishment clauses - promotes in-depth case analysis through the use of lightly edited classic and current cases The Second Edition incorporates the many changes in the field: - a substantially revised section on The Power of the Purse considers the latest developments regarding school vouchers, funding of social services and strings attached to government aid - the section on tort claims against religious institutions reflects recent issues involving sexual-abuse cases - new Supreme Court and key lower-court decisions in all areas appear throughout the book
Michael William McConnell (J.D., University of Chicago, 1979; B.A., Michigan State Univesity, 1976) is professor and Director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He served as Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 2002–2009. He has additionally held professorships at University of Chicago Law School, the University of Utah, and S.J. Quinney College of Law, as well as visiting professor at Harvard Law School and at the New York University School of Law.
We were required to have the 2nd edition,which ended up being rather spendy. The book is the crux of our program so it's been useful, but definitely not ideal for an introduction to the legal system. I do appreciate how notes are discussed and questions brought up at the end of every chapter, but otherwise it's a pretty dense read.