Modern Constitutional Law: Cases, Notes, and Questions

Bennett L. Gershman, Pace University School of Law

CasebookPlus™

This title is available in our CasebookPlus format. CasebookPlus provides support beyond your classroom lectures and materials by offering additional digital resources to you and your students. Anchored by faculty-authored formative self-assessments keyed to our most popular casebooks, CasebookPlus allows students to test their understanding of core concepts as they are learning them in class – on their own, outside of the classroom, with no extra work on your part. CasebookPlus combines three important elements:

• A new print or digital casebook
• Access to a downloadable eBook with the ability to highlight and add notes
• 12-month access to a digital Learning Library complete with:

Multiple-choice self-assessment questions, including:

• Chapter questions keyed to the casebook
• Black Letter Law questions (available in select subjects)
• Subject area review questions for end of semester use

Essay and short answer questions with sample answers and expert commentary, in 1L and select upper-level subjects

Leading digital study aids, an outline starter, and audio lectures in select subjects

Students can still utilize CasebookPlus digital resources if they’ve purchased a used book or are renting their text by purchasing the Learning Library at westacademic.com.

With CasebookPlus, you can customize your students’ learning experience and monitor their performance. The quiz editor allows you to create your own custom quiz set, suppress specific quiz questions or quiz sets, and time-release quiz questions. Additionally, the flexible, customized reporting capability helps you evaluate your students’ understanding of the material and can also help your school demonstrate compliance with the new ABA Assessment and Learning Outcomes standards.

Table of Contents

2025 Update Memo

First, the book is as succinct as the previous edition, and much shorter than many of the other constitutional law casebooks. Second, the book incorporates all the important new cases and contains new questions. For example, the Supreme Court:

• Held that abortion is no longer a constitutionally-protected right.
• Broadened the Second Amendment right for individuals to possess firearms in public.
• Ruled that it is unlawful for colleges and universities to consider an applicant’s race in making admissions decisions.
• Articulated a new “Major Questions” doctrine that restricts the authority of federal agencies to regulate certain “extraordinary” matters unless Congress gives clear instructions.
• Clarified the principles underlying state regulations under the dormant commerce clause.
• Ruled that states possess concurrent jurisdiction with the federal government to prosecute crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians on tribal reservations.
• Struck down under the Takings Clause a state regulation allowing union organizers to enter a company’s property to talk to employees.
• Articulated the standard for threats in a criminal context.
• Ruled that a city’s refusal to allow a religious group to fly a “Christian flag” from City Hall violated the First Amendment.
• Ruled that a graphic designer could not be compelled under a state anti-discrimination law to create a website for the marriage of a same-sex couple.
• Ruled that a school district violated the First Amendment when it disciplined a student who posted a message on the internet critical of school authorities.
• Held that school district violated the Free Speech and Free Exercise clauses when it disciplined a high school football coach who knelt at midfield after football games and prayed silently.
• Held that a city’s refusal to contract with a Catholic agency to place children in foster homes of same-sex parents violated the Free Exercise clause.
• Held that a state violated the Free Exercise clause when it refused to fund private sectarian schools for educational purposes.
• Upheld a death row inmate’s request to have his pastor lay hands on him and pray with him in the execution chamber.

Learn more about this series.