
51 Imperfect Solutions
States and the Making of American Constitutional Law
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
David Drummond
About this listen
When we think of Constitutional law, we invariably think of the US Supreme Court and the federal court system. Yet much of our constitutional law is not made at the federal level. In 51 Imperfect Solutions, US Court of Appeals Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton argues that American Constitutional law should account for the role of the state courts and state constitutions, together with the federal courts and the federal Constitution, in protecting individual liberties.
The audiobook tells four stories that arise in four different areas of Constitutional law: equal protection; criminal procedure; privacy; and free speech and free exercise of religion. Traditional accounts of these bedrock debates about the relationship of the individual to the state focus on decisions of the US Supreme Court. But these explanations tell just part of the story. The audiobook corrects this omission by looking at each issue - and some others as well - through the lens of many constitutions, not one constitution; of many courts, not one court; and of all American judges, not federal or state judges. Taken together, the stories reveal a remarkably complex, nuanced, ever-changing federalist system.
©2018 Oxford University Press (P)2018 HighBridge CompanyListeners also enjoyed...
-
Who Decides?
- States as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation
- By: Jeffrey S. Sutton
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 18 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everything in law and politics, including individual rights, comes back to divisions of power and the evergreen question: Who decides? Who wins the disputes of the day often turns on who decides them. And our acceptance of the resolution of those disputes often turns on who the decision maker is—because it reveals who governs us. Who Decides makes the case that Constitutional Law should account for the role of the state courts and constitutions, together with the federal courts and constitution, in assessing the right balance of power among all branches of government.
-
-
Insightful and Pioneering
- By Alice in Dallas on 08-27-22
-
Scalia's Court
- A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents
- By: Antonin Scalia, Kevin A. Ring
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The sudden passing of Justice Antonin Scalia shook America. After almost 30 years on the Supreme Court, Scalia had become as integral to the institution as the hallowed room in which he sat. His wisecracking interruptions during oral arguments, his unmatched legal wisdom, his unwavering dedication to the Constitution, and his blistering dissents defined his leadership role on the court and inspired new generations of policymakers and legal minds.
-
-
Understand the conservative philosophy of original
- By Proof Tree on 11-14-17
By: Antonin Scalia, and others
-
The Essential Scalia
- On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law
- By: Antonin Scalia, Jeffrey S. Sutton - editor, Edward Whelan - editor, and others
- Narrated by: Christopher Scalia, Karen Commins, Jason Culp
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A justice on the United States Supreme Court for three decades, Antonin Scalia transformed the way that judges, lawyers, and citizens think about the law. The Essential Scalia presents Justice Scalia on his own terms, allowing listeners to understand the reasoning and insights that made him one of the most consequential jurists in American history. Known for his forceful intellect and remarkable wit, Scalia mastered the art of writing in a way that both educated and entertained.
-
-
Great read to introduce Scalia's thought
- By Walter J. Caywood on 10-22-20
By: Antonin Scalia, and others
-
Worse than Nothing
- The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism
- By: Erwin Chemerinsky
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originalism, the view that the meaning of a constitutional provision is fixed when it is adopted, was once the fringe theory of a few extremely conservative legal scholars but is now a well-accepted mode of constitutional interpretation. Noted legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky gives a comprehensive analysis of the problems that make originalism unworkable as a method of constitutional interpretation. He argues that the framers themselves never intended constitutional interpretation to be inflexible and shows how it is often impossible to know the "original intent" of any provision.
-
-
Impeccably Logical, Backed by 100 Specific Example
- By Amy Eaton on 03-17-23
-
The Words That Made Us
- America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840
- By: Akhil Reed Amar
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 27 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Words That Made Us, Akhil Reed Amar unites history and law in a vivid narrative of the biggest constitutional questions early Americans confronted, and he expertly assesses the answers they offered. His account of the document's origins and consolidation is a guide for anyone seeking to properly understand America's Constitution today.
-
-
And the words that made Us
- By Anonymous User on 10-17-22
By: Akhil Reed Amar
-
The Shadow Docket
- How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic
- By: Stephen Vladeck
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Supreme Court has always had the authority to issue emergency rulings in exceptional circumstances. But since 2017, the Court has dramatically expanded its use of the behind-the-scenes “shadow docket,” regularly making decisions that affect millions of Americans without public hearings and without explanation, through cryptic late-night rulings that leave lawyers—and citizens—scrambling. But Americans of all political stripes should be worried about what the shadow docket portends for the rule of law, argues Supreme Court expert Stephen Vladeck.
-
-
Where was Vladeck?
- By SorenKMiller on 05-25-23
By: Stephen Vladeck
-
Who Decides?
- States as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation
- By: Jeffrey S. Sutton
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 18 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everything in law and politics, including individual rights, comes back to divisions of power and the evergreen question: Who decides? Who wins the disputes of the day often turns on who decides them. And our acceptance of the resolution of those disputes often turns on who the decision maker is—because it reveals who governs us. Who Decides makes the case that Constitutional Law should account for the role of the state courts and constitutions, together with the federal courts and constitution, in assessing the right balance of power among all branches of government.
-
-
Insightful and Pioneering
- By Alice in Dallas on 08-27-22
-
Scalia's Court
- A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents
- By: Antonin Scalia, Kevin A. Ring
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The sudden passing of Justice Antonin Scalia shook America. After almost 30 years on the Supreme Court, Scalia had become as integral to the institution as the hallowed room in which he sat. His wisecracking interruptions during oral arguments, his unmatched legal wisdom, his unwavering dedication to the Constitution, and his blistering dissents defined his leadership role on the court and inspired new generations of policymakers and legal minds.
-
-
Understand the conservative philosophy of original
- By Proof Tree on 11-14-17
By: Antonin Scalia, and others
-
The Essential Scalia
- On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law
- By: Antonin Scalia, Jeffrey S. Sutton - editor, Edward Whelan - editor, and others
- Narrated by: Christopher Scalia, Karen Commins, Jason Culp
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A justice on the United States Supreme Court for three decades, Antonin Scalia transformed the way that judges, lawyers, and citizens think about the law. The Essential Scalia presents Justice Scalia on his own terms, allowing listeners to understand the reasoning and insights that made him one of the most consequential jurists in American history. Known for his forceful intellect and remarkable wit, Scalia mastered the art of writing in a way that both educated and entertained.
-
-
Great read to introduce Scalia's thought
- By Walter J. Caywood on 10-22-20
By: Antonin Scalia, and others
-
Worse than Nothing
- The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism
- By: Erwin Chemerinsky
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originalism, the view that the meaning of a constitutional provision is fixed when it is adopted, was once the fringe theory of a few extremely conservative legal scholars but is now a well-accepted mode of constitutional interpretation. Noted legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky gives a comprehensive analysis of the problems that make originalism unworkable as a method of constitutional interpretation. He argues that the framers themselves never intended constitutional interpretation to be inflexible and shows how it is often impossible to know the "original intent" of any provision.
-
-
Impeccably Logical, Backed by 100 Specific Example
- By Amy Eaton on 03-17-23
-
The Words That Made Us
- America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840
- By: Akhil Reed Amar
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 27 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Words That Made Us, Akhil Reed Amar unites history and law in a vivid narrative of the biggest constitutional questions early Americans confronted, and he expertly assesses the answers they offered. His account of the document's origins and consolidation is a guide for anyone seeking to properly understand America's Constitution today.
-
-
And the words that made Us
- By Anonymous User on 10-17-22
By: Akhil Reed Amar
-
The Shadow Docket
- How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic
- By: Stephen Vladeck
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Supreme Court has always had the authority to issue emergency rulings in exceptional circumstances. But since 2017, the Court has dramatically expanded its use of the behind-the-scenes “shadow docket,” regularly making decisions that affect millions of Americans without public hearings and without explanation, through cryptic late-night rulings that leave lawyers—and citizens—scrambling. But Americans of all political stripes should be worried about what the shadow docket portends for the rule of law, argues Supreme Court expert Stephen Vladeck.
-
-
Where was Vladeck?
- By SorenKMiller on 05-25-23
By: Stephen Vladeck
-
American Midnight
- The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a groundbreaking reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threated by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor
-
-
Disturbing yet Reassuring
- By Sams95 on 11-18-22
By: Adam Hochschild
-
Fixer-Upper
- How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems
- By: Jenny Schuetz
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Much ink has been spilled in recent years talking about political divides and inequality in the United States. But these discussions too often miss one of the most important factors in the divisions among Americans: the fundamentally unequal nature of the nation's housing systems. Increasingly, important life outcomes—performance in school, employment, even life expectancy—are determined by where people live and the quality of homes they live in. Fixer-Upper is the first book assessing how local, state, and national housing policies affect people and communities.
-
-
Good review
- By A. F. Davis on 09-16-22
By: Jenny Schuetz
-
The Second Founding
- An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment
- By: Ilan Wurman
- Narrated by: Ilan Wurman
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment, Ilan Wurman provides an illuminating introduction to the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment's famous provisions "due process of law", "equal protection of the laws", and the "privileges or immunities" of citizenship. He begins by exploring the antebellum legal meanings of these concepts, starting from Magna Carta, the Statutes of Edward III, and the Petition of Right to William Blackstone and antebellum state court cases.
-
-
Erudite but wrong
- By Thomas S. Hudson on 01-19-23
By: Ilan Wurman
-
A History of Western Philosophy
- By: Bertrand Russell
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 38 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Considered to be one of the most important philosophical works of all time, the History of Western Philosophy is a dazzlingly unique exploration of the ideologies of significant philosophers throughout the ages - from Plato and Aristotle through to Spinoza, Kant and the 20th century. Written by a man who changed the history of philosophy himself, this is an account that has never been rivaled since its first publication over 60 years ago.
-
-
Russell's Philosophy, Some History Included
- By Donald on 06-19-21
By: Bertrand Russell
-
Federal Rules of Evidence with Cues and Signals for Good Objections, 1st Edition
- By: Deanne Siemer
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Knowing the technical bases for objections is not so difficult. Law school covers that. What is much harder is recognizing a good objection very quickly when your opponent puts a question to a witness or starts using a document. Cues and Signals gives you details on every objection that has been recognized in federal courts and sorts out the high-payoff objections from those of lower priority for both oral testimony and exhibits. Everything you need on objections is in one audiobook.
-
-
No Real-world Examples
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-19
By: Deanne Siemer
-
The Turnaway Study
- The Cost of Denying Women Access to Abortion
- By: Diana Greene Foster PhD
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz, full cast
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What happens when a woman seeking an abortion is turned away? To answer this question, Diana Greene Foster assembled a team of scientists—psychologists, epidemiologists, demographers, nurses, physicians, economists, sociologists, and public health researchers—to conduct a 10-year study. They followed a thousand women from across America, some of whom received abortions, some of whom were turned away. Now, for the first time, Dr. Foster presents the results of this landmark study in one extraordinary, groundbreaking book.
-
-
Scientific Research on Women's Reproductive Health
- By Clinton Conley on 07-09-21
-
Ways and Means
- Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War
- By: Roger Lowenstein
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Upon his election to the presidency, Abraham Lincoln inherited a country in crisis. Even before the Confederacy’s secession, the United States Treasury had run out of money. The government had no authority to raise taxes, no federal bank, no currency. But amid unprecedented troubles Lincoln saw opportunity—the chance to legislate in the centralizing spirit of the “more perfect union” that had first drawn him to politics.
-
-
Perspective that matters - financing the Civil War
- By Edgewater on 07-04-22
By: Roger Lowenstein
-
Lessons from the Edge
- A Memoir
- By: Marie Yovanovitch
- Narrated by: Marie Yovanovitch
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the time she became US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch had seen her share of corruption, instability, and tragedy in developing countries. But it came as a shock when, in early 2019, she was recalled from her post after a smear campaign by President Trump’s personal attorney and his associates—men operating outside of normal governmental channels, and apparently motivated by personal gain. Her courageous participation in the subsequent impeachment inquiry earned Yovanovitch the nation’s respect, and her dignified response to the president’s attacks won our hearts.
-
-
Heroic patriot's amazing story
- By Victoria Eriksson on 03-19-22
-
Servants of the Damned
- Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice
- By: David Enrich
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times’s Business Investigations Editor and #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers comes a long-overdue exposé of the astonishing yet shadowy power wielded by the world’s largest law firms, following the narrative arc of Jones Day, the firm that represented the Trump campaign and much of the Fortune 500, as a powerful encapsulation of the changes that have swept the legal industry in recent decades.
-
-
Best book of its kind by far
- By Kathleen on 12-19-22
By: David Enrich
-
The Great Dissenter
- The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero
- By: Peter S. Canellos
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 19 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They say that history is written by the victors. But not in the case of the most famous dissenter on the Supreme Court. Almost a century after his death, John Marshall Harlan’s words helped end segregation and gave us our civil rights and our modern economic freedom. But his legacy would not have been possible without the courage of Robert Harlan, a slave who John’s father raised like a son in the same household.
-
-
A good and necessary book, BUT WHY THE BEEPS??!
- By aaron on 09-06-21
-
The Man from the Future
- The Visionary Life of John von Neumann
- By: Ananyo Bhattacharya
- Narrated by: Nicholas Camm
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable, yet largely overlooked, man: John von Neumann.
-
-
Good book, very odd narration
- By Ben Wiener on 04-10-22
-
Nine Black Robes
- Inside the Supreme Court's Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences
- By: Joan Biskupic
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
CNN Senior Supreme Court Analyst Joan Biskupic provides an urgent and inside look at the history-making era in the Supreme Court during the Trump and post-Trump years, from its seismic shift to the Right to its controversial decisions, including its reversal of Roe v. Wade, based on access to all the key players.
-
-
Another 3 star effort from Biskupic
- By Richard Spitaleri Jr. on 04-16-23
By: Joan Biskupic
What listeners say about 51 Imperfect Solutions
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Patrick
- 11-14-23
Excellent Look Into a Complicated Issue
I’m not a lawyer nor a legal scholar, but the author lays out complicated legal issues in a way that anyone can follow and understand.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Philo
- 06-25-19
Other wellsprings of rights
Sometimes, 51 imperfect (legal) solutions (federal + states) can point to better, wiser outcomes than stopping at one (federal, one-size-fits-all) solution. This is a time when such questions are being reopened, after a 20th century with an ever-growing centralized federal government.
This is a pretty advanced book on rights, legal history and courts' powers. It is written by a judge and seemingly has lawyers as an audience. Given that, it is very interesting and might be very influential.
These are interesting times in our legal system (with all the excitement and foreboding that might engender). Conservative judges are digging back into the texts and reexamining powers of government that have been taken for granted since -- let's say most sharply, about 1936. That is not to say the legal overgrowth (if one so thinks) is merely being chopped away. Let's say the structural parts are being looked at hard by very powerful judges. It is surprising who this may benefit -- it is not merely the script that the powerful help the powerful. This book is another interesting facet of these issues and these times. The author is very thoughtful and by no means a knee-jerk ideologue politically. His judicial temperament runs deep.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- surya
- 08-19-19
A decent opinion from an established jurist
To be honest, I ought to confess that I purchased this book due to false advertising in the byline. I thought it would be about how constitutional law starts with states and how the 14th federalizes other due process laws. But, this book takes a different broad line showing reasons why people ought to give more weight to their respective state rights. The author takes through 4 different topics where regional decisions would have made less damage.
My takeaways from the book are the facts of the four cases discussed than anything else and the I do concede that there are some merits in the bottom up approach for Constitutional Law. Like Gideon v Wainwright where right to attorney was federalized once enough states picked it up on their own, I concede that states ought to act as the first experimenters and the successful implementations can then be weighed and federalized. But, there are times when we are one country and there are times when we are 50 states. Sometimes a regional solution doesn't provide equality. For example, take Obergfell v Hodges where the facts of the case show that two married couple suddenly find themselves out of matrimony by the whim of states. Even the cases that discussed, it is not universally accepted that Supreme Court did more damage than necessary. Mapp set standard nationwide for Bill of Rights instead of leaving to whims of individual states that can discriminate against minorities. And, the author fails to establish the justification for more weight to state claims. Yes, different states had different approaches to eugenics. This doesn't invalidate the US Supreme Court and having one central repository for the rights is preferable than individuals having to review states' constitutions every time they want to move to a new state. Finally, yes Supreme Court is tied down from interpreting laws broadly while states can experiment. So, I do agree people might have greater chance to win in state courts.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!