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Table of Contents
About The Book
Think of this as the U.S. Constitution explained by America’s favorite law professor, Melissa Murray. On her podcast, Strict Scrutiny, Murray and her cohosts, Kate Shaw and Leah Litman, provide in-depth, accessible, and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court and its cases, culture, and personalities.
On that podcast, on MSNOW—where she is a frequent contributor—in opinion pieces, and when providing commentary as she did in a recent New York Times piece on Justice Brown Jackson, Murray spends an awful lot of time demystifying laws for everyone else. In this book, she tackles one of the founding American documents: the Constitution. Each amendment will be annotated with some historical context provided, as well as examples of how it is relevant to our present day.
More necessary than ever, as we look to the Supreme Court and their interpretation of the Constitution as the last institution upholding our democracy, this book is an indispensable read for every thinking American.
Appearances
In Person
Commonwealth Club
Product Details
- Publisher: 37 Ink (May 5, 2026)
- Length: 352 pages
- ISBN13: 9781668221952
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Raves and Reviews
"At long last, we have an annotated and explanatory guide to our Constitution that ordinary people, lawyers, and democracy advocates can understand. Constitutional law scholar Melissa Murray does the hard work of distilling the meaning of our Constitution into a book that should be in every home library, on every desk, and in every school. This is a critical work for our time."—Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel Emeritus, The Legal Defense Fund
"With this timely and readable annotated Constitution, Prof. Melissa Murray has yet again done what she does best: Locating current disputes over constitutional powers, authority and limits within her expansive knowledge of history, caselaw, legal movements and daily headlines. Equal parts legal doctrine and owners manual, this deep dive into the founding documents serves as a vital reminder that it is emphatically the province of the people to know what the law is, so that they can defend it and also build it to serve its highest purposes."—Dahlia Lithwick, author of the New York Times bestseller Lady Justice and host of Amicus
"Murray is without peer in her ability to translate the law to a general audience. With this book, Murray convincingly and succinctly explains how under the Constitution, the people are supreme and empowers us all to claim the Constitution as our own, to hold the government to account, and to continue the Constitution's project of becoming a more perfect Union."—Leah Litman, author of the New York Times bestseller Lawless
"Murray does so much more than annotate the Constitution, she illuminates it, and in the process exposes its dark secrets and hidden myths. She tells us not only what the Constitution says, but what it really means."—Elie Mystal, Justice Correspondent for The Nation Magazine
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
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Book Cover Image (jpg): The U.S. Constitution
eBook 9781668221952
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Author Photo (jpg): Melissa Murray Photograph by Alexandra Nataf(0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit
