ISBN 1-58939-951-X, $3.00, ebook
"THE LIVING CONSTITUTION: A Unified Arrangement" is a unique study tool that incorporates the amendments into the body of the Constitution. The combined text is itself rearranged into convenient major categories, just short of a recodification, displaying only the text that is currently relevant today. Line numbers facilitate quick location of text.
All transitional, temporary, obsolete, or superseded material has been deleted. Such historical material is identified at the end. The guide is best used with a full text Constitution in a standard arrangement at hand. Only those sections giving Congress power to enforce certain provisions by "appropriate legislation" are excluded, but they are delineated under Congressional powers.
The index highlights only material the student is likely to be normally referred. For example, the clause forbidding a state from maintaining a standing army is ignored, but the one prohibiting impairment of obligation of contract is listed. There is a table from articles and sections to line numbers that allows the user to go from one known section to find others on the same subject in juxtaposition.
The most discussed phrases, such as due process or probable cause, are highlighted in red against a yellow background. The text of the first eight amendments which have been incorporated in whole or in part into the 14th Amendment are highlighted by use of italics.
The source for the text is that of the National Archives and Records Administration.
The author is Dale Alan Diefenbach who was for ten years Senior Reference Librarian at Harvard Law School.
