"Today many constitutional law professors devote less than a week of each course to the philosophical tenets and legal origins of the U.S. Constitution, instead highlighting constitutional history and specific court cases. In Reflections on Constitutional Law, George Anastaplo emphasizes the continuing significance and importance of the Constitution by examining the most important influences on the American constitutional system, including the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence." "Reflections on Constitutional Law offers unique insights into the 1787 Constitution as well as a careful examination of the documents that preceded it. These documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Northwest Ordinance, have long been identified, with the Constitution, as the "organic laws of the United States." Anastaplo also examines the Confederate Constitution of 1861, a document intended to protect the Southern system of slavery, which was left vulnerable by the Constitution of 1787. Reflections on Constitutional Law discusses as well a series of key United States Supreme Court cases, a few of which are normally overlooked in constitutional law courses. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET.