Liberty, Equality and Due Process: Cases, Controversies, and Contexts in Constitutional Law

Reviewed by Melissa Randall, Instructor, Colorado State Board of Higher Education on 11/16/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Professor Robson does an excellent job identifying and editing cases related to the current issues in Constitutional Law. While discussing some important historical cases and principles, her focus is on current legal standards and issues about which students will need and want to learn.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Professor Robson's book is written as a law school case book. Her introductions to legal concepts are concise and as unbiased as possible given the hot button issues the cases address. She introduces the cases and poses reflection questions to encourage honest student dialogue around those issues.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

This book is subject to the dynamic nature of the evolving body of law. As soon as the courts announce opinions related to Constitutional rights, a case book will need to be updated. This is the unavoidable nature of law. However, this book is organized around legal principles in a way that should make updating the book relatively straightforward.

Clarity rating: 5

For a law textbook, this case book is very accessible to readers. The legal terminology is necessary and appropriate, especially when the precise meaning of the legal terms of art are at issue in the cases. It is clear that Professor Robson's goal is to help students understand the law, not to lose them in an avalanche of pedantic paragraphs.

Consistency rating: 5

Professor Robson's organization and presentation of concepts are consistent throughout the book.

Modularity rating: 5

The book is organized extremely well, especially given the complex legal principles in the cases. The book is organized by overarching legal concepts, with a brief introduction to the legal principles, followed by the relevant edited cases, and ending with homework/reflection questions. It is obvious that Professor Robson has devoted significant time thinking through how to present the information in modules for her students so that they can use the case book as their primary source for class preparation and discussions.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The book follows a logical order of topics. After discussing federalism and judicial review, the book delves into the historical development of slavery and race issues. From there, the book starts to follow more thematic than chronological topics--equal protection in the context of different protected groups and evolving issues.

Interface rating: 4

This book focuses on the language of the court cases, along with written descriptions of them. As a result, there are not any interface issues regarding images and graphics. However, some of the edited cases may be challenging for students utilizing e-readers because of the density and formatting of the court cases.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

For the length of the book, there are very few typos and grammatical errors. The main typo that I found affecting the meaning of the content is on page 149 in the discussion of Loving v. Virginia. There is a typo in the sentence regarding the year in which they pleaded guilty.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This case book discusses the equal protection of different protected classes under the US Constitution, with a final chapter discussing some state constitutional provisions. Therefore, it has extensive examples of individuals from different groups within our society. The tone of Professor Robson's writing is culturally sensitive and unbiased, even when the US Supreme Court Justices are not.

Comments

This book is written for law students who are studying Constitutional Law and, therefore, utilizes a traditional case book format. A case book may not fit the needs of instructors outside of the law school environment. However, Professor Robson's introductions and summaries of key legal principles may be useful in undergraduate law classes, and her editing of the court opinions is extremely well done. As a result, the edited cases may be useful for instructors to use when preparing for their classes, even if they do not assign the book to their students.