Holland, McAllister, Shaman and Sutton's State Constitutional Law: The Modern Experience

Designed for a survey course, this book uses the most interesting state court decisions from around the country to illustrate the astonishing array of state constitutional issues occurring in modern American law. The presentation emphasizes the function of state constitutions in our federal system. A central theme is that state constitutions provide a source of rights independent of the federal Constitution and are frequently construed to grant more expansive protection for individual rights than the federal Constitution provides. The book also explores the structure of state government, the process of amending state constitutions, taxation, public finance, and school funding.