Posted by Orin Kerr:
Clancy, "The Fourth Amendment: Its History and Interpretation":
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_10_19-2008_10_25.shtml#1224643621
I recently received a copy of a new Fourth Amendment treatise, a
one-volume work by Professor [1]Thomas K. Clancy of the University of
Mississippi Law School: [2]The Fourth Amendment: Its History and
Interpretation. I've spent some time looking through it, and I find it
a very noteworthy addition to the Fourth Amendment literature. I
wanted to flag it for interested readers.
On one hand, Professor Clancy's book is a standard treatise: It
takes you through the doctrine in a very clean and straightforward
way. At the same time, Clancy does two things that are unusual in
modern Fourth Amendment treatises. First, Clancy takes the history and
text very seriously. He includes coverage of common law practice where
relevant, and he carefully compares common law standards to modern
ones and explains how the law has evolved. The historical treatment
makes the book a helpful resource for scholars or folks just
interested in originalism. More narrowly, it's also helpful for
advocates working on Supreme Court cases who are looking for Scalia's
vote.
Second, Professor Clancy mostly avoids editorial comment. His focus
is on explaining the law and its contours as clearly as possible,
without expressing a view as to whether a hypothetical Justice Clancy
would have concurred or dissented. There is occasional editorial
comment in the footnotes, but it's mostly assessments of relevant
Fourth Amendment scholarship (and it's relatively rare).
Anyway, the book retails for $90, but at least right now there are
some used copies available for sale from Amazon for $31. If you're
interested in the Fourth Amendment, it's very much worth checking out.
References
1. http://www.law.olemiss.edu/faculty/clancy_thomas.html
2.
http://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Amendment-Its-History-Interpretation/dp/1594604126/
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