The Hornbook Series

Of elementary treatises on all the principal subjects of the law. The special features of these books are as follows:

1. A succinct statement of leading principles in black: letter type.

2. A more extended commentary, elucidating the principles. 3. Notes and authorities.

4. Problems and hypothetical cases to test the student's knowledge.

Published in regular octavo form, and sold at the uniform price of

$3.75 per volume, including delivery.

Other subjects in preparation to be announced later.

West Publishing Co., St. Paul, Minn.

O

HANDBOOK

OF

American Constitutional Law

BY

HENRY CAMPBELL BLACK, M. A.

=

Author of Black's Law Dictionary, and of Treatises on Judgments, Tax
Titles, Constitutional Prohibitions, Etc.

ST. PAUL, MINN.
WEST PUBLISHING CO.

PREFACE.

This book is intended primarily for the use of students at law and instructors in the law schools and universities. It contains a condensed review of all the leading principles and settled doctrines of American constitutional law, whether arising under the federal constitution or those of the individual states. These principles and doctrines are stated in the form of a series of brief rules, or propositions, numbered consecutively throughout the book, and are explained, amplified, and illustrated in the subsidiary text, and supported by the citation of pertinent authorities. The necessary limitation of space, as well as the purpose and plan of the work, have precluded any attempt at exhaustive discussion or minute elaboration of the great topics of constitutional law. But the book is believed to be comprehensive of the general subject and sufficiently detailed to equip the student with an accurate general knowledge of the whole field. And since the solution of new questions must be sought, not alone in the application of precedents, but also in the settled rules and the accepted canons of interpretation, and since the mind is often best prepared for the investigation of a specific problem by a rapid synoptical review of the results already worked out by the courts in that department to which it belongs, it is hoped that general practitioners may find the book to possess a special value for themselves. It would have been undesirable, even if it were possible, to discuss in these pages all the thousands of reported cases which bear upon the subject of constitutional law. Such an accumulation of authorities would have cumbered the work to the point of destroying its utility. But a very considerable number of the more important and valuable decisions have been suitably referred to, and more, perhaps, than any student would have time or occasion to read. But it was thought that both student and practitioner would appreciate the advantage of being directed to the principal authorities, especially as they may have occasion to study certain special topics with more detail and particularity than the handbook itself could undertake.