First Prize – One winner will receive a framed copy of New Yorker cartoon
Second Prize – 15 winners will receive one copy of the following books:
-
Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency
by Richard A. Posner (Oxford University Press, USA; August 14, 2006)
In Not a Suicide Pact, Posner explores how we might strike a balance between security concerns and constitutionally protected civil liberties in the face of the threat of terrorism. These issues include the constitutional rights of terrorist suspects (whether American citizens or not) to habeas corpus and due process, and their rights against brutal interrogation (including torture) and searches based on less than probable cause. Posner stresses the limits of law in regulating national security measures and underscores the paradoxical need to recognize a category of government conduct that is at once illegal and morally obligatory.
"A welcome voice in the national debate about freedom vs. security."
—The Washington Post Book World
- Unfinished Business: Racial Equality in American History
by Michael J. Klarman (Oxford University Press, USA; August 28, 2007)
In Unfinished Business, Klarman illuminates the course of racial equality in America, revealing that we have made less progress than we like to think. Highlighting a variety of social and political factors that have influenced the path of racial progress—wars, migrations, urbanization, shifting political coalitions—he looks in particular at the contributions of law and of court decisions to American equality.
"This remarkably concise and innovative book offers a comprehensive history of American race relations and takes our understanding of that topic in a compelling new direction."
—Henry Louis Gates, W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University
- Out of Range: Why the Constitution Can't End the Battle over Guns
by Mark V. Tushnet (Oxford University Press, USA; August 5, 2007)
In Out of Range, Tushnet takes a calm, objective look at the bitter debate over the Second Amendment, drawing upon his deep expertise in the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and the role of the law in American life. Examining various experiments in public policy, from both sides, he finds little clear evidence for the practical effectiveness of any approach to gun safety and prosecution. Ultimately, Tushnet argues, the answer to the debate will not be found in any holy writ, but in our values and our vision of the nation.
"Timely and astute, Out of Range makes us think through the divisive legal arguments about the Second Amendment and face our cultural war over guns."
—Joan Burbick, author of Gun Show Nation: Gun Culture and American Democracy
Third Prize – 100 winners will receive a copy of the ABA’s Pocket Edition of the Constitution
