How many books thank both Barack Obama and John Yoo?  I know of one — and it might well be the only one:  The Law of Democracy:  Legal Structure of the Political Process.  Back in the mid-1990s, when we were working on the first edition, Barack Obama was a mere state senator and law professor at the University of Chicago Law School; John Yoo was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.  Both taught from the materials and provided us significant substantive analysis and commentary.  Some others thanked in the First Edition (1998), who were not well known at the time – indeed, many were law students – but have since gone on to became major academic or public-policy figures include Lani Guinier (Harvard Law); Sherrilyn Ifill (now President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP LDF); Daryl Levinson (NYU Law); Nate Persily (Stanford Law); Jeff Fisher (Co-Director, Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic); Tom Goldstein (the lawyer who created and runs SCOTUS Blog).  If I left anyone out, assume it’s because I considered you already well known back in 1998. . .or you worked on later editions.

I thought of all this when I looked through the book while getting ready to post a notice about the 2013 Supplement to last year’s Fourth Edition now being available.  One of the most gratifying aspects of creating this casebook has been the amazing people we have had a chance to work with along the way.  As for the 2013 Supplement, suffice it to say it covers all the important developments that need to be covered, and more, and that it’s available from Foundation Press for immediate download here.