The Bill of Rights Assignment
A CDS Library Helpsheet
CDS Library Subscription Databases -- Loaded with Information!
Ask at the library for the usernames and passwords.
LexisNexis (library subscription database; available on the library's webpage)
• Choose Legal research and you can search by keyword (such as “ eminent domain”) , parties involved, etc. and see the entire text of US Supreme Court decisions from 1789 to today, including dissents, footnotes, etc.
• You can also search “Law Reviews” for articles in law journals.
Student Resource Center (library subscription database; available on the library's webpage)
• Enter your topic and be rewarded with hundreds of articles from reference books, magazines, newspapers, etc. from two big databases : Student Resource Center and Opposing Viewpoints .
• Choose the book articles for a good overview—the articles should list some of the best-known cases.
Encyclopedia Britannica Online (library subscription database; available on the library's webpage)
• Not only encyclopedia articles, but links to magazine articles and pertinent websites.
REFERENCE:
Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions . REF 348.73 Oxf 1999
Short entries on over 400 Supreme Court cases and an index listing cases by issue.
Encyclopedia of the American Constitution . REF 342.73 ENC
Lots of articles about specific cases and a good one on the Bill of Rights. Check the indexes in volume 2 AND in the Supplement for your topic
The Supreme Court of the United States : A Student Companion . REF 347.73 Sup 2001
Look up your topic for an overview. Don't miss the cases listed in the “see also” references. Also has an article on the Bill of Rights.
How Government Works . REF 320.473 HOW 1999
Bill of Rights article and others.
The US Legal System . REF 349.73 US 2004
Wonderful article on the Bill of Rights; don't miss the “see also” references at the end.
Oxford Companion to American Law . REF 349.73 2002
Encyclopedia of American law . REF 349.73 Sch 2002
Contents: Entries A-Z -- Appendices: Declaration of independence -- Articles of confederation -- The constitution of the United States -- Bill of rights -- Other amendments to the constitution -- Emancipation proclamation -- Locating court cases and laws -- Justices of the supreme court -- How cases reach the United States supreme court -- The stages of a criminal case.
Black's Law Dictionary . REF 340.03 Bla 1999
The place for definitions of those pesky legal terms.
The Dictionary of American History . REF 973.03 DIC 2003
Big article on the Bill of Rights.
The Annals of America . REF 973 ANN v 3
Has the text of the Bill of Rights (p364) as well as other interesting documents. Thomas Jefferson: On the Omission of a Bill of Rights (p185); Jefferson and John Madison letters: Consideration of a Bill of Rights ; Madison : A Bill of Rights Proposed (p354).
CIRCULATING BOOKS:
Entire books on your topic may be found in the library catalogue.
Use a keyword(s) search to find them.
The Bill of Rights : Creation and Reconstruction . 342.73 Ama 1998
“The Bill of Rights stands as the high temple of our constitutional order-- America 's Parthenon--and yet we lack a clear view of it," Akhil Reed Amar writes in his introduction to The Bill of Rights . "Instead of being studied holistically, the Bill has been broken up ... with each segment examined in isolation." With The Bill of Rights , Amar aims to put the pieces back together and take a longer view of a document few Americans truly understand. Part history of the Bill, part analysis of what the Founding Fathers' intentions really were, this book provides a unique interpretation of the Constitution.
The Bill of Rights , the Courts, and the Law : Case Abridgements and Commentary . 342.73 Bil 1991
Chapters: Evolving concepts - Free speech - Church and State - The public's right to know - Rights of the accused - Racial discrimination and preference - Equal protection: gender - Due process, privacy, and personal autonomy - Ethnic identity, immigration, and equality - State constitutions and state bills of rights.
1791- 1991 : the Bill of Rights and Beyond. 342.73 COM
Publication of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U. S. Constitution
The Bill of Rights : Opposing Viewpoints . 342.73 DUD
Essays from 1994 and earlier on the Bill of Rights.
America 's Constitution : A Biography . 342.73 Ama 2005
Starred Review. You can read the U.S. Constitution, including its 27 amendments, in about a half-hour, but it takes decades of study to understand how this blueprint for our nation's government came into existence. Amar , a 20-year veteran of the Yale Law School faculty, has that understanding, steeped in the political history of the 1780s, when dissatisfaction with the Articles of Confederation led to a constitutional convention in Philadelphia , which produced a document of wonderful compression and balance creating an indissoluble union. Amar examines in turn each article of the Constitution, explaining how the framers drew on English models, existing state constitutions and other sources in structuring the three branches of the federal government and defining the relationship of the that government to the states. Amar takes on each of the amendments, from the original Bill of Rights to changes in the rules for presidential succession. The book squarely confronts America 's involvement with slavery, which the original Constitution facilitated in ways the author carefully explains. Scholarly, reflective and brimming with ideas, this book is miles removed from an arid, academic exercise in textual analysis. Amar evokes the passions and tumult that marked the Constitution's birth and its subsequent revisions. Only rarely do you find a book that embodies scholarship at its most solid and invigorating; this is such a book. Publisher's Weekly
ks – 9-26-07