Law and Social Change

Law 550A

Political Science 524

Assignment #2
An Examination of the Implementing Population
(Due on March 7)

1. Select any U.S. Supreme Court case (except the School Prayer cases, Bakke, Mapp, Miranda, and Roe) decided before 1995 that you think required implementation.

2. Identify the actor(s) who should have implemented the decision. Conduct extensive searches of relevant newspapers, magazines, books, articles, and so on to determine in what way(s) the actors implemented (or did not)/responded (or did not) to the Court's decision. (If you can't locate any information, you'll have to select another case.)

3. Explain why the actors reacted the way that they did. (Devising an explanation will require you to consider various features of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, as well as to develop an understanding of the relevant characteristics of the actors charged with implementing it. )

4. Write up your analysis. It should include (1) a brief discussion of the part of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that required implementation; (2) a summary of what steps the relevant actors did or did not take; and (3) an explanation(s) for why the actors reacted as they did (see #3 above). Your paper should not be longer than 5 double-spaced pages. Use a font-size of 12 point.

5. The paper is due on March 7. You can bring it to class or attach it to an email to me (epstein@wustl.edu).