Product Description
The Third Edition provides in freestanding form all the chapters and materials relating to the First Amendment from Sullivan and Gunther’s Constitutional Law, Sixteenth Edition. It offers in-depth coverage of the freedoms of speech, press and association, as well as the free exercise and establishment clauses. This casebook grounds students in traditional First Amendment law and theory while exposing them to cutting-edge contemporary First Amendment problems, from c… More >>
#1 by M. Young on April 5, 2010 - 2:12 am
I used Sullivan & Gunther, Constitutional Law 15th Edition. It has been my least favorite casebook, although I like Con Law. The note cases are too long and too numerous, but the note sections are incoherently presented so that the whole book seems like mush. All the primary and note cases have little formatting, so it is hard to getting any sense about how the opinions are organized. I have looked up some cases on Westlaw, and they are much better formatted (e.g., more paragraphs) in the original!
According to the First Amendment Law preface this book “provides in standalone form all the chapters on free speech, free press and the religion clauses from Sullivan & Gunther, Constitutional Law 16th Edition.” Argh. I used this book for First Amendment (the 15th to 16th Edition update made me buy this 1A book), and it stinks for the same reasons that the big Constitutional Law casebook stinks.
Students you do not get to choose your casebook, but you can start picking your hornbook.
I liked The First Amendment by Daniel A. Farber, Second Edition.
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by Chic on April 5, 2010 - 3:26 am
As a 3L, I can definitely say that this is THE WORST casebook I have had the misfortune of being forced to buy and use. It had little to no orienting and introductory material and far too many cases. No good case book has tons of cases stuffed into the note section of one topic. If it is that important that you need three or four pages in the NOTE section, then why not just make it a full case or excerpt? And if it is not that useful, then why not boil it and other similar cases down into a sentence or two? This casebook was truly absolutely unhelpful and but for First Amendment nutshell and Understanding the First Amendment, I would not have survived the class or learned much of anything. Professors please do not pick this casebook.
Rating: 1 / 5