U.S. Constitution For Dummies by Michael Arnheim (PDF)

Description

An in-depth look at the defining document of AmericaWant to make sense of the U.S. Constitution? This plain-English guide walks you through this revered document, explaining how the articles and amendments came to be and how they have guided legislators, judges, and presidents and sparked ongoing debates. You’ll understand all the big issues — from separation of church and state to impeachment to civil rights — that continue to affect Americans’ daily lives.Get started with Constitution basics — explore the main concepts and their origins, the different approaches to interpretation, and how the document has changed over the past 200+ yearsKnow who has the power — see how the public, the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court share in the ruling of AmericaBalance the branches of government — discover what it means to be Commander in Chief, the functions of the House and Senate, and how Supreme Court justices are appointedBreak down the Bill of Rights — from freedom of religion to the prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishments,” understand what the first ten amendments meanMake sense of the modifications — see how amendments have reformed presidential elections, abolished slavery, given voting rights to women, and moreOpen the book and find:The text of the Constitution and its ammendmentsDiscussion of controversial issues including the death penalty, abortion, and gay marriageWhy the word “democracy” doesn’t appear in the ConstitutionWhat the Electoral College is and how it elects a PresidentDetails on recent Supreme Court decisionsThe Founding Fathers’ intentions for balancing power in Washington

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: About the Author Dr. Michael Arnheim is a practicing British barrister, mediator, and academic, as well as the author of a text on British constitutional law. He consults with various U.S. firms on constitutional issues.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This book will not make one a “Constitutional Attorney-Lawyer,” however, it will make one better understand the US Constitution, the role of the Federal Government, Supreme Court, and States Rights….For example, in Chapter 21, under “Rebellion or Other Crime” it asserts: ”Denying or abridging the voting rights “for participation in rebellion, or other crime” doesn’t result in any reduction in representation. Does this mean that it’s okay to deny or abridge voting rights for these reasons? Or does it only mean that denying or abridging voting rights for these reasons doesn’t reduce a state’s representation? There’s no agreement on this point. “Participation in rebellion” means siding with the Confederacy in the Civil War. This provision is academic because not too many graybacks (Confederate soldiers) are still around. What about felons? Unfortunately, felons are never in short supply. This provision of the Fourteenth Amendment has never been applied to deprive them of the vote, but many states have laws doing so, either only when they are actually doing jail time or, in many cases, even after their release from prison.” (cited from: Arnheim, Michael. U.S. Constitution For Dummies (p. 303). Wiley. Kindle Edition.)Furthermore, it asserts- once again in Chapter21, under “Denying or abridging the right to vote” that “The whole of the rest of Section 2 is about what happens if a state “denies or abridges” any of its citizens’ right to vote. This mammoth clause — all one sentence — clearly envisages a state preventing a sizeable number of its citizens from voting. If a state does that, it loses the relevant proportion of its representation. Let me take as a hypothetical example a state with 30 seats in the House of Representatives. If that state denies or abridges (reduces in any way) the voting rights of 10 percent of its voters, that state loses 10 percent of its seats. So, that state’s representation is reduced from 30 to 27. This provision has never been put into practice, and the clause doesn’t say who has the power to strip a state of part of its representation in this way. Did southern states fall under this provision in the early 20th century by introducing literacy tests and poll taxes in order to reduce the number of black voters? Possibly, but none of those states ever had its representation reduced, although literacy tests and poll taxes were declared unconstitutional. Let me just explain a couple of dated terms in this section: “Indians not taxed”: Native Americans were not automatically U.S. citizens until the passing of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. So they were not counted in the population of the states where they lived until then — unless they had acquired U.S. citizenship by marriage, by serving in the U.S. army, or by special treaty.” (cited from: Arnheim, Michael. U.S. Constitution For Dummies (pp. 302-303). Wiley. Kindle Edition.)Some of the above examples are even listed in the beginning of the book’s forward by “Ted Cruz Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP Former Solicitor General of Texas,” (cited from: Arnheim, Michael. U.S. Constitution For Dummies . Wiley. Kindle Edition.) and first few chapters then elaborated on as well as things like (in introduction): “James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution, explained as follows: If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” (cited from: Arnheim, Michael. U.S. Constitution For Dummies . Wiley. Kindle Edition.), for example. Additionally, in Chapter One it asserts: “Can a school district assign students to public high schools on the basis of race alone? In 2007, by 5 votes to 4, the Supreme Court said no. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts held that “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” (cited from: Arnheim, Michael. U.S. Constitution For Dummies (p. 15). Wiley. Kindle Edition.) and elaborated on subsequent chapters. Just like, as book claims, “ Are states allowed to secede from the Union? The Supreme Court says no. The last time secession was tried, it took a civil war to end it. Since that time a number of groups have advocated the secession of a state, a city, or a tribe, but no serious attempt has been made. (One such group, the Alaskan Independence Party, hit the news during the 2008 election campaign because of alleged links with Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate.) (Cited from: Arnheim, Michael. U.S. Constitution For Dummies (p. 16). Wiley. Kindle Edition.)In conclusion, this is more than a good primer into the US Constitution, its many and varying interpretations, whom those with a good knowledge of the English language and adequate reading comprehension should find most useful. As one can clearly see from above- and the following-it covers a wide array of hot topics both past and present, such as “The Supreme Court [ruling] that the California law infringed on the welfare recipients’ “right to travel” and settle in any state they liked. The court also struck down the federal law because “Congress may not authorize the States to violate the Fourteenth Amendment.”” (cited from: Arnheim, Michael. U.S. Constitution For Dummies (p. 296). Wiley. Kindle Edition.) [This in regard to- “In 1992, California passed a law to discourage people from moving there in order to get the more generous welfare payments.” (cited from: Arnheim, Michael. U.S. Constitution For Dummies (p. 296). Wiley. Kindle Edition.)] Ergo, many US Citizens s well as non-citizens should find highly useful in understanding not only the US Constitution but many other facets of the US way of life-culture, within the framework of Federal, State and varying judicial-governmental systems![Would also recommend the following works at Amazon.com further reading-understanding US Constitution:-“American Constitutional Law, Volume I: The Structure of Government 10th Edition” by Ralph A. Rossum (Author), G. Alan Tarr (Author)-“American Constitutional Law, Volume II: The Bill of Rights and Subsequent Amendments 10th Edition”by Ralph A. Rossum (Author), G. Alan Tarr (Author)-“The Federalist Papers” (Dover Thrift Editions) Paperback – July 23, 2014 by Alexander Hamilton (Author), James Madison (Author), John Jay (Author)-“The Coming Civil War” Paperback – August 28, 2018 by Tom Kawczynski (Author)-“Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever” (Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Series) by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard-“The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901” by Heather Cox Richardson (Author)As well other available books on American Revolution, US Civil War, and other domestic and foreign US conflicts…..

⭐The author covers every article and amendment, and he makes every attempt at explaining concepts like judicial review and enumerated powers in layman’s terms. While the book contains sections marked “In My Opinion,” which the author gives the reader permission to skip, the reader finds the author’s take on various Supreme Court decisions throughout the text. In fact, the book is as much an argument for strict constructionism as it is a comprehensive review of the Constitution. (Justice Antonin Scalia is quoted many times throughout this book. And Ted Cruz wrote the foreward.) The author too often brushes off Living Constitution arguments, calling various 5-4 conservative court decisions “imminently sensible,” as though anyone would have reached the same decision, even though four justices took the other side.As other reviewers have noted, the structure of the book is not as straightforward as one might expect. The author is constantly referring the reader to other sections of the book, and some topics and cases are mentioned several times. At first, I found this frustrating, and I still wonder if another structure might have been more effective. However, the author wants to show how different parts of the Constitution work in tandem to produce the government we’ve got. For instance, he explains the philosophy of incorporation very well(even though he clearly hates it), but explaining it involves taking amendments out of order and analyzing them side by side. So while he takes the amendments in order, in his discussion of each amendment he includes relevant portions of other amendments. His handling of the 5th and 14th amendments is a good example of this: the discussion of each amendment is in a different chapter, but since each one has a Due Process clause, he compares the amendments to better explain what due process is all about. Same thing with amendments 10 and 14.This is my first “for Dummies” book, so I can’t compare it to other books in the series. It seems to me that this book might be too technical for someone who wants a quick, no-frills summary of the Constitution. (In addition to the “In My Opinion” sections, there are also sections called “technical stuff,” where the author really gets into the weeds on some heavy issues. He says the reader can skip these sections, as well, but even so, I think that the book isn’t really for “dummies” at all.) And I find the idea of packaging an unabashedly right-wing analysis of the constitution as an unbiased intro for laymen kind of creepy (but really smart). Still, I’m glad I read this book. I learned a lot from it. If you want an in-depth but fairly plainspoken introduction to the Constitution and don’t mind having to filter out the author’s conservative throwaway lines, you’ll enjoy the book. And to the author’s credit, I’m a dyed-in-the wool lefty, and his arguments on certain points really made me think.

⭐This is an excellent book for understanding the basics of the Constitution, along with examples of how it has been interpreted or misinterpreted over the years. Dr. Arnheim writes clearly and objectively, and sometimes a bit humorously, so it is easy to read. Wherever he offers his own opinion he clearly marks the paragraph with an icon and “In My Opinion”.

⭐This was a well used former circulating library book. The description did not match the condition.

⭐I love this book. With so much being presented in the media about rights and laws and acts of Congress, I wanted to know exactly what the Constitution said. I keep it by my chair and when something comes up that I don’t remember or understand I look it up.

⭐This is an excellent book for someone who has not had any schooling in the Constitution. I am just an average working man with a high school/tech school education but I do care about the direction our country is headed. This book explains the Constitution and many aspects of how government should operate so that even I can understand it. It is a big help to me to let me know if our elected officials are operating within the ConstitutionThe author does give his opinion on many of the controversial issues of the past and present but he makes it clear that it is his opinion only. He also gives the possible reasoning behind opposing viewpoints and actions in which he disagrees. It is not simply an ideological one sided book but something anyone could learn a lot from regardless of your political views.The book does not go to great depth but I don’t think you could expect that from a “Dummies” book. Overall, a great book for beginners.

⭐This book was very enlightening, it really broke down the U.S. Constitution into easy to understand sections. Highly recommended

Keywords

Free Download U.S. Constitution For Dummies in PDF format
U.S. Constitution For Dummies PDF Free Download
Download U.S. Constitution For Dummies 2009 PDF Free
U.S. Constitution For Dummies 2009 PDF Free Download
Download U.S. Constitution For Dummies PDF
Free Download Ebook U.S. Constitution For Dummies