Vile - A Companion to the United States Constitution and Its Amendments

A COMPANION TO THE
UNITED STATES
CONSTITUTION AND
ITS AMENDMENTS

SIXTH EDITION

John R. Vile

Copyright 2015 by John R. Vile

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vile, John R. author.

A companion to the United States Constitution and its amendments / John R. Vile. Sixth edition.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9781440833274 (hardcopy : alk. paper) ISBN 9781440833281 (ebook) ISBN 9781440835605 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Constitutional lawUnited States. I. Title.

KF4550.V552015

342.7302dc232014035182

ISBN: 9781440833274

9781440835605 (paper)

EISBN: 9781440833281

19 18 17 16 151 2 3 4 5

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To my dear wife, Linda Christensen Vile, in continuing celebration of the covenant of marriage that we made with one another in 1976.

In a classic tale, Goldilocks discovered during her visit to the house of three bears that porridge can be too hot or too cold, that chairs can be too big or too small, and that beds can be too hard or too soft. Alternatively, they can be just right. So, too, students and citizens seeking knowledge of the U.S. Constitution discover that books can be too long or too short, too ponderous or too breezy, too ideological or too lifeless. Contrariwise, they can be just right. I have designed this book to fit into the just right category. To switch to an Aristotelian analogy, I have tried in this book to find a golden mean between serious scholarship and reader accessibility in describing and explaining the U.S. Constitution, its amendments, and its interpretations.

I am especially interested in giving citizens and students in civics, American government, and constitutional law classes access to materials that are chiefly found in erudite casebooks and commentaries on the U.S. Constitution and in professional and scholarly journals. Recognizing that scholars often validly disagree about such matters, I have emphasized both what the best scholarship suggests that those who wrote and ratified provisions of the Constitution meant and how others have subsequently interpreted them. Because the nation is now more than 225 years old, the U.S. Supreme Court has written hundreds of cases interpreting some provisions of the Constitution; in such circumstances, case interpretations can easily swallow the document they are designed to explicate. I have accordingly attempted to describe and identify important judicial trees without in doing so obscuring the view of the constitutional forest. I am grateful to the attentive readers who have responded positively to earlier editions of this book, in which I utilized this same approach.

I have designated this book as a companion to the Constitution in order to avoid the pretentiousness of designating it as an authoritative guide, or an individualistic interpretation. I have included the texts of provisions from the Constitution directly in the text so that readers can compare what I say with the actual language of the document itself. Although I recognize that fallible individuals wrote and ratified the document, I believe it remains among the greatest examples of its kind and have let it speak, wherever it can, in its own voice. I have updated the book so that it covers all major legal developments through the 20132014 term of the U.S. Supreme Court, which is approximately the mid-point of President Barack Obamas second term. Avoiding the rather extensive reorganization in which I engaged in the last edition, I have continued with its organization but added brief chapter summaries to this edition for readers to review the highlights of each chapter. I hope that this edition, like its predecessors, will help readers both better understand and better appreciate the Constitution. In writing this book, I further hope to honor my loving parents and inspiring teachers, the brave and wise American forebears who committed themselves to establishing and preserving a system of liberty under law, and the men and women of good will who continue to cherish and defend constitutional government today.

In writing this book I am indebted to my students, especially those who have taken my classes in American government and in constitutional law, as well as to students and teachers who have utilized prior editions of this work and who have encouraged me to continue to update it. Ever since I began full-time teaching in 1977, I have devoted at least a week or two in my introductory American government classes toward explicating the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution section by section, and another similar period to dealing specifically with the Bill of Rights, the post-Civil War Amendments, and those of the Progressive Era. In my constitutional law classes, I have utilized a traditional casebook approach that has further emphasized constitutional interpretation and development. I enjoy reading cases and recognize that they are critical to understanding U.S. history, but the more cases I have read, the more convinced I have become that it remains important to return to the textual source of constitutional interpretations, and that the text itself should be the beginning point for students of the subject.

In writing five previous editions of this book, I have been privileged to draw from research that I have written and edited or to which I have contributed. I believe that this edition will be especially enhanced by recent work I have done updating the sixteenth edition of Essential Supreme Court Decisions, publishing The Men Who Wrote the Constitution, co-editing the Encyclopedia of the Fourth Amendment, and writing Re-Framers: 170 Eccentric, Visionary, and Patriotic Proposals to Rewrite the U.S. Constitution.

I want therefore to thank all those teachers, students, friends, colleagues, and administrators who have taught, encouraged, and challenged me and furthered my scholarly endeavors. I especially appreciate the support I have received from Middle Tennessee State University, where I continue to enjoy my post as dean of the Honors College.

My friends know how indebted I am to my wife, Linda. With Gods help, she and I pledged our lives to one another in a more perfect Union of marriage just a week before the bicentennial celebration of the Declaration of Independence. Thankfully, our union has enabled us not only to pursue, but also to attain and enjoy, considerable happiness. I deeply appreciate the affection, encouragement, and support that she has given to our daughters, Virginia and Rebekah, and their families and to me. She has done this while pursuing a successful career teaching elementary school. I am pleased to rededicate this volume, like its five predecessors and my dissertation, to Linda in deepest appreciation for her continuing affection and support.