The Supreme Court and Legal Change

Published in 1992. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
436 pp.
ISBN 0-8078-2051-2 (cloth)
ISBN 0-8078-4384-9 (paper)

(We presented various chapters of the book ms. at the 1990 annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, the 1990 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, and the 1989 meeting of the Law & Society Association.)

Lee Epstein
Joseph F. Kobylka

Description (from UNC Press)

The authors analyze abortion and death penalty decisions by the Supreme Court and argue that they provide prime examples of abrupt legal change. After proposing that the strength of legal arguments has at least as much impact on Court decisions as do public opinion and justices' political beliefs, they focus on the way litigators propel certain issues onto the Court's agenda and seek to persuade the justices to affect legal change.

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. The Agents of Legal Change
Chapter 3. Capital Punishment I: The Road to Furman
Chapter 4. Capital Punishment II: From Furman to McCleskey
Chapter 5. Abortion I: The Road to Roe
Chapter 6. Abortion II: From Roe to Webster
Chapter 7. The Life of the Law: Understanding the Dynamics of Legal Change
Appendix 1. Profile of Capital Punishment Cases
Appendix 2. Profile of Abortion Cases
Notes
Tables of Cases
References
Index

Click here for Midwest Political Science Association paper (.pdf).
Click here for the American Political Science Association conference paper.
Click here for the Law & Society Association paper (.pdf).