Politics and Constitutionalism presents a collection of eight original essays by leading political science and law scholars, organized to recognize and analyze Louis Fisher's prolific and important body of work. The essays explore the role of all three branches of government in shaping constitutional meaning and institutional behavior, noting that the courts do not have sole interpretive power. This principle is applied to such topics as the dynamic of key court rulings, federalism, war powers, diplomacy, government secrecy, and the impact of the legal community on constitutional interpretation. The book's contributors also turn renewed attention to the study of American institutions as the fountainhead of political analysis, a movement in which Fisher has been a pioneer. Fisher himself contributes a summative essay.

Contributors include David Gray Adler, Dean Alfange, Jr., Neal Devins, Louis Fisher, Michael J. Glennon, Loch K. Johnson, Nancy Kassop, and Robert J. Spitzer.