Vagaries and Varieties in Constitutional Interpretation

The classic study of historical and then-emerging ways in which the U.S. Constitution has been interpreted and applied, especially as regards judicial power to review congressional acts, sharing of power between states and the federal government, Lochnerism, changes to the Supreme Court during the Roosevelt years, taxing power, and interstate commerce. Quid Pro’s new presentation makes the work accessible.

Thomas Reed Powell presented these insights first as lectures at Columbia Law School. Their enduring nature and historical insider-ness makes them of continuing interest to law professors and students, historians, and political scientists who see constitutional structure-and not only rights and liberties-as crucial to understanding politics, the federal-state balance, and the infusion of government into economic life.

Powell was valued not only in law but also taught political science; he edited political journals, seeing pragmatic approaches to constitutional questions that went beyond legal doctrine. His writing style is pithy, witty, and straightforward. Summing up a career of constitutional scholarship in six insightful lectures, Powell turned the resulting book into his legacy.

The Legal Legends edition from Quid Pro Books features modern formatting and presentation-but also embeds the original book’s pagination, for continuity and proper referencing. It includes new Notes of the Series Editor by Steven Alan Childress, J.D., Ph.D., a senior law professor at Tulane University.