How the First Amendment Came to Protect Topless Dancing: A Citizen's Guide to the Incorporation Doctrine [Kindle Edition]

Susan Shelley (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Author Susan Shelley shines a light on the inside game that has allowed the U.S. Supreme Court to seize control of state and local laws on issues from topless dancing to panhandling, from drug searches to abortion, from prison management to the death penalty. Read the true story of how the Supreme Court interpreted away the powers reserved to the states and replaced them with what Texas Congressman Ron Paul called "the phony incorporation doctrine" and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia called "the biggest stretch that the Court has made."

This new eBook edition contains updates on the Supreme Court's recent decisions regarding the Second Amendment right to own a gun, the First Amendment right to protest at military funerals, the Fourth Amendment defense against strip-searches in schools, and the federal court order to release over 30,000 convicted felons from California state prisons.

Includes complete source notes and a bibliography.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 339 KB
• Publisher: ExtremeInk Books (August 8, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005GL93YW
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,376 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Are you an American? Read this book!, February 21, 2012

By 

Barry Krusch - See all my reviews

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This review is from: How the First Amendment Came to Protect Topless Dancing: A Citizen's Guide to the Incorporation Doctrine (Kindle Edition)

The incorporation doctrine. Doesn't sound very exciting, does it? Yet it is extremely important concept in constitutional law, one which has radically transformed the meaning of the First Amendment, as I pointed out in my Kindle ebook Would The Real First Amendment Please Stand Up?.

While my book is focused exclusively on the First Amendment, author Susan Shelley analyzes the incorporation doctrine from a number of different perspectives. It is a very well researched, very well written book, and (as a not insignificant bonus), entertaining. The average reader might not think that a book on constitutional law would provide an evening's entertainment, but then again, the average reader is not aware of the Supreme Court's treatment of the Constitution, as humorous as it is frightening. So you get a comedy and a horrorshow for the price of one ticket.

To take just one of the many examples in this book, apart from the one mentioned in the title, were you aware that the state of California does not have the right to pass legislation that bans the sale of violent video games to children? Not according to the Supreme Court, it doesn't, although the Constitution is quite clear on the point: it does (read it sometime). By the same logic, no state has the power to ban the sale of "torture porn" to anyone, children included. This is the world our "supreme" court is creating.

NOTE: I agree with the author's point as it applies to the First Amendment only (the one with the word "Congress" in it. But that's enough).

Read this book. Read my book. Get reading! There's a lot to know . . .