Unifying the Nation
Article IV of the United States Constitution
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In-depth examination of a rarely studied article of the United States Constitution.
Description
While there is a vast amount of scholarship on the US Constitution, very little of it addresses Article IV. The article's first section, the Full Faith and Credit Clause, requires that individual states must respect "the public acts, accords, and judicial proceedings of every other state," and the second section, the Privileges and Immunity Clause, prevents one state from treating the citizens of another state in a discriminatory manner. In Unifying the Nation, Joseph F. Zimmerman provides a unique and comprehensive examination of court cases pertaining to both sections. Article IV, he argues, is central to the political and economic union of the individual states that comprise the nation. Many of the court cases cited in the text have tremendous day-to-day relevance and implications for the practice of government, such as same-sex marriage, child adoption, child support, public welfare, health care, and telecommunications.
Joseph F. Zimmerman is Professor of Political Science at the University at Albany, State University of New York. His many books include The Initiative, Second Edition: Citizen Lawmaking; State-Local Governmental Interactions; and Interstate Water Compacts: Intergovernmental Efforts to Manage America's Water Resources, all published by SUNY Press.
Reviews
"This book is an important addition to any academic law library and any academic, court, or public library that has an appreciable constituency of legal or political science researchers. Few monographs on the U. S. Constitution focus exclusively, yet coordinately, on the Full Faith and Credit Clause and the Privileges and Immunities Clause, and the extensive notes and bibliography in Unifying the Nation help to provide an excellent wide-scale view into this relatively narrow area of constitutional study. " — Law Library Journal
"…Zimmerman's book is an invaluable compendium of legislative and judicial information useful to scholars and students seeking to understand the primary Article IV clauses. " — Publius