Freedom of the Press : Constitution Day

Electronic books

• Baker, Edwin C, Media, markets, and democracy. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• Haynes, Charles C, The First Amendment in schools : a guide from the First Amendment Center. Alexandria, Va. : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2003.
• Jones, William K, Insult to injury: libel, slander, and invasions of privacy. Boulder, Colo. : Univ. Press of Colorado, 2003.
• Roosevelt, Kermit, The myth of judicial activism : making sense of Supreme Court decisions. New Haven : Yale University Press, 2006
• Saunders, Kevin W. Saving our children from the First Amendment. New York : New York University Press, 2003.
• Smith, Jeffrey A, War & press freedom: the problem of prerogative power. New York : Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Williams, Susan H. Truth, autonomy, and speech: feminist theory and the First Amendment. New York : New York University Press, 2004.

Print books

• Alderman, Ellen and Kennedy, Caroline. In our defense : the Bill of Rights in action. New York : Morrow, 1991. (GA: UNIV General Stacks: 342.085 A4i, 1991)
• Dadge, David. Casualty of war : the Bush administration's assault on a free press. Amherst, N.Y : Prometheus Books, 2004. (GA: UNIV General Stacks: Call Number: 323.445 D338c, 2004)
• Garry, Patrick M. Rediscovering a lost freedom : the First Amendment right to censor unwanted speech. New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers, 2006. (GA: UNIV General Stacks: Call Number: 323.445 G376r, 2006)
• Hemmer, Joseph Jr. Communication law : the Supreme Court and the First Amendment. Lanham, MD : University Press of America, 2006 (GA: UNIV General Stacks: Call Number: 343.099 H46c, 2006)
• Lankford, Ronnie D. Book banning. Detroit : Greenhaven Press, 2008. (GA: UNIV General Stacks: Call Number: 363.31 B668, 2008)
• Lewis, Anthony. Freedom for the thought that we hate : a biography of the First Amendment. New York : Basic Books, 2007. (GA: UNIV General Stacks: Call Number: 342.0853 L49f, 2007)
• Lewis, Anthony Make no law : the Sullivan case and the First Amendment. New York : Vintage Books, 1992. (GA: UNIV General Stacks: Call Number: 345.0256 L49m, 1992)
• Philips, Peter & Project Censored. Censored 2005 : the top 25 censored stories. New York : Seven Stories, 2004. (GA: UNIV General Stacks: Call Number: 323.445 C46, 2004)

Web sites

• Constitution Day Information
  1. Celebrate Constitution Day!
     www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution/constitution-day.html
     This National Archives site includes information about upcoming activities at the Archives in honor of Constitution Day, images of the original handwritten Constitution, activities, a lesson plan, and many other resources.

      

  2. CQ Press in Context: Celebrating Constitution Day
     www.cqpress.com/incontext/constitution/default.htm
     Includes lesson plan, historical background, links to pro/con debates on constitutional issues, information about government powers, factoids, and links to many other sites.

      

  3. Constitution Day!
     www.constitutionday.us
     Includes clause-by-clause interpretation of the Constitution and lesson plans.

      

• Constitutional History
  1. U.S. Constitution Online
     www.usconstitution.net
     Provides a wealth of information about the Constitution and the people who wrote it.

      

  2. Articles of Confederation
     www.archives.gov/historical-docs/document.html?doc=2&title.raw=Articles%20of%20Confederation
     America's "first" Constitution -- the Articles of Confederation

      

  3. The Federalist: A Collection of Essays...
     www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL/federalist/
     The ratification of the Constitution in 1789 created many famous debates. Compare the Federalist Papers (the pro-Constitution set of newspaper articles by Madison, Hamilton and Jay) ...

      

  4. Index to the Antifederalist Papers
     wepin.com/articles/afp/index.htm
     ... with the articles written by those who were against ratification.

      

• Constitutional Law
  1. Supreme Court of the United States
     www.supremecourtus.gov
     The official US Supreme Court website.

      

  2. Supreme Court Collection
     http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/index.html
     Another excellent site to access Supreme Court cases.

      

• Amendments
  1. First Amendment Center
     www.firstamendmentcenter.org
     Chock full of information on freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

      

  2. The Failed Amendments
     www.usconstitution.net/constamfail.html
     There have also been several attempts to amend the Constitution that failed. Here are amendments actually proposed by Congress that were not ratified.

      

  3. Some Proposed Amendments
     www.usconstitution.net/constamprop.html
     Here are amendments that have not yet been officially proposed by Congress. See the article and list for brief descriptions of the several hundred that have been introduced in Congress in the last fifteen years.

      

• Comparing Constitutions
  1. Constitutions, Statutes, and Codes
     www.law.cornell.edu/statutes.html
     Each state in the United States has its own Constitution. This includes a list of links to state constitutions in the third section.

      

  2. National Constitutions
     www.constitution.org/cons/natlcons.htm
     The US Constitution was not the first Constitution, but it is unique in many ways when compared to the constitutions of other countries. This is a list of and links to constitutions from other countries.

      

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Prepared by
Laura Jacobi, Coordinator of Reference and Instruction
and David Penna, Professor of Government
September, 2005

Updated by
Patrick Oberholtzer, Instruction and Reference Librarian
September, 2008