Law and Social Change

Law 550A

Political Science 524

Assignment #3
An Examination of the Impact of Court Decisions
(Due on April 20)

1. Click here to obtain a list of "salient" U.S. Supreme Court cases (those that received front-page coverage in the New York Times on the day they were decided or are listed in Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court). Select any case that appeared on both lists (the NYT and CQ) and that we have (or will) not covered in class (consult the course outline for a list of these cases).

2. Your tasks are (1) to determine whether the case generated significant social, political, legal, or economic change. Read Chapter 2 in Rosenberg, The Hollow Hope, for some approaches to so doing; (2) explain why you think you obtained the results that you did. Rosenberg, Chapter 1 and Canon and Johnson, Chapter 7 provide general explanations that you may find useful.

4. Write up your analysis. It should include (1) a brief discussion of the case, (2) a summary of your approach to determining whether the case generated change, (3) your results, and (4) your explanation. Your paper should not be longer than 7 double-spaced pages. Use a font-size of 12 point.

5. The paper is due on April 20. You can drop it in my box in Eliot Room 219 or attach it to an email to me (epstein@wustl.edu).