Government Law

Americans revere the Constitution even as they argue fiercely over its original toleration of slavery. Some historians have charged that slaveholders actually enshrined human bondage at the nation's founding. The acclaimed political historian Sean Wilentz shares the dismay but sees the Constitution and slavery differently. Although the proslavery side won important concessions, he asserts, antislavery impulses also influenced the framers' work. Far from covering up a crime against humanity, the Constitution restricted slavery's legitimacy under the new national government.

In the past thirty years alone, more than 2,800 innocent American prisoners—their combined sentences surpassing 25,000 years—have been exonerated and freed after being condemned for crimes they did not commit. Terrifyingly, this number represents only a fraction of the actual number of persons wrongfully accused and convicted over the same period.

In this comprehensive book, we delve into the intricacies of Environmental Law, from its theoretical foundations to international agreements that shape global cooperation for sustainability. Throughout the audobook, crucial themes emerge that underscore the ongoing significance of Environmental Law in building a balanced world.

Signed on September 17, 1787 - four years after the American War for Independence - the Constitution laid out the supreme law of the United States of America. Today it's easy for us to take this blueprint of our government for granted. But the Framers - 55 men from almost all of the original 13 states - argued fiercely for many months over what ended up being only a four-page document. Here is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the hotly fought issues - those between Northern and Southern States; big states and little ones - and the key players.

Dr. Christine Montross has spent her career treating the most severely ill psychiatric patients. Several years ago, she set out to investigate why so many of her patients got caught up in the legal system when discharged from her care - and what happened to them therein. Waiting for an Echo is a riveting, rarely seen glimpse into American incarceration. It is also a damning account of policies that have criminalized mental illness, shifting large numbers of people who belong in therapeutic settings into punitive ones.

The only crime defined in the United States Constitution, treason is routinely described by judges as more heinous than murder. Today the term is regularly thrown around by lawmakers and pundits on both sides of the aisle. But as these heated accusations flood the news cycle, it's not always clear what the crime of treason truly is, or when it should be prosecuted. Drawing on over two decades of research, constitutional law and legal history, scholar Carlton Larson takes us on a grand tour of the Treason Clause of the United States Constitution.

Palila v Hawaii. New Zealand's Te Urewera Act. Sierra Club v Disney. These legal phrases hardly sound like the makings of a revolution, but beyond the headlines portending environmental catastrophes, a movement of immense import has been building - in courtrooms, legislatures, and communities across the globe. Cultures and laws are transforming to provide a powerful new approach to protecting the planet and the species with whom we share it.

Born into dire poverty in the segregated South and abandoned by his father as a child, Justice Clarence Thomas triumphed over seemingly insurmountable odds to become one of the most influential justices on the Supreme Court. Yet after three decades of honorable service, few know him beyond his contentious confirmation and the surrounding media firestorm. Who is Justice Clarence Thomas, in his own words? Created Equal builds on dozens of hours of groundbreaking one-on-one interviews with Thomas to share a new, expanded account of his powerful story for the first time.

Though the Constitution was ratified in 1788, its impact on our lives is as recent as today's news. Informed by the latest scholarship and exploring the major themes that have shaped American constitutional history: federalism, the balance of powers, property, representation, equality, rights, and security, this book places constitutional history within the context of American political and social history. As our nation's circumstances have changed, so has our Constitution.

During his 28-year career, Matthew Horace rose through the ranks from a police officer working the beat to a federal agent working criminal cases in some of the toughest communities in America to a highly decorated federal law enforcement executive managing high-profile investigations nationwide. Yet it was not until seven years into his service - when Horace found himself face down on the ground with a gun pointed at his head by a white fellow officer - that he fully understood the racism seething within America's police departments.

As the son of celebrated NYPD commissioner, Ray Kelly, and a former lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, Greg Kelly has had a firsthand look at the critical importance of law enforcement in America. In a nation divided, progressives want to abolish the very organizations that keep us safe. Kelly expertly reveals their indispensability. Both a celebration and a call to action, Justice for All is perfect for fans of Mark Levin, Greg Gutfeld, and Sean Hannity.

For well over a century, public schools have been a non-partisan gathering place and vital center of civic life in America—but something has changed. In School Moms, journalist Laura Pappano explores the on-the-ground story of how public schools across the country have become ground zero in a cultural and political war as the far-right have made efforts to seek power over school boards.

There is no more noble profession in any society formed by man, than serving the people. There is no greater human responsibility or undertaking than civil, thoughtful and unbiased enforcement of the laws of the land. With the establishment of such enforcement organaizations, which will be staffed by imperfect human beings, we have a responsibility and duty to ensure that “We, the people,” do the utmost to respect those enforcing the law.

The 2nd moon of Jupiter has been turned into a prison planet, where for several generations robot drone ships have been dumping the scum of the universe, and are patrolled by a ring of security satellites. After a century of research, old core samples for the ice moon reveal that the frozen oceans of Europa hold the base element for an immortality drug that can extend the human lifespan several-fold. Now greedy military corporations race to exploit this new fountain of youth, only to discover they can't disable the orbiting sentry that was programmed to guard the inmates at all costs. It ...

In July of 1987, Judge Robert H. Bork was nominated to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan, but by late October that year, his confirmation was denied. In this candid account of his experiences, Bork describes the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing from his point of view. He also expounds on his view of politics versus the law, which he was able to see in action during this period. A warning against the politicization of American law, The Tempting of America is a fascinating, insider's perspective about the nominating process and its impact on the Supreme Court.

With the Supreme Court likely to reverse Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion decision, American debate appears fixated on clashing rights. The first comprehensive legal history of a vital period, Abortion and the Law in America illuminates an entirely different and unexpected shift in the terms of debate. Drawing on unexplored records and interviews with key participants, Ziegler complicates the view that the Supreme Court is responsible for the escalation of the conflict.

Discover the truth about the Second Amendment, the NRA, and the United States' centuries-long fight over guns in this first-of-its-kind book for middle-grade listeners. Hana Bajramovic's Whose Right Is It?: The Second Amendment and the Fight over Guns reveals how a once obscure amendment became the focus of daily heated debate. The book will show young listeners how gun legislation has always been a part of American history and how money, power, and race have long dictated our ability to own guns.

The Constitution was once the bedrock of our country, an unpretentious parchment that boldly established the God-given rights and freedoms of America. Today that parchment has been shred to ribbons. An important follow-up to Judge Napolitano's best-selling Constitutional Chaos, this book shows with no-nonsense clarity how Congress has "purchased" regulations by bribing states and explains how the Supreme Court has devised historically inaccurate, logically inconsistent, and even laughable justifications to approve what Congress has done.

A provocative history that reveals how guns - not abortion, race, or religion - are at the heart of America's cultural divide. Gunfight promises to be a seminal work in its examination of America's four-centuries-long political battle over gun control and the right to bear arms. Adam Winkler uses the landmark 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller, which invalidated a law banning handguns in the nation's capital, as a springboard for a groundbreaking historical narrative.

Guaranteed to give the listener a deeper understanding of America’s most powerful judicial body, John Yoo, professor of law at UC Berkeley, and Robert Delahunty, professor of law at the University of St. Thomas, detail in sprightly, slightly irreverent manner how the black-robed judges who make up the U.S. Supreme Court have swung like a pendulum from saviors of the Republic to super-legislators who usurp the roll of Congress and dictate law from the bench, back to defenders of the Constitution again—or at least for the moment.