The Modern U.S. Supreme Court

LAW 529E
Fall 2024

Outline & Readings

Note: This is hardly an inclusive list of the many studies on the Roberts Court. If you're interested in additional readings, please contact Prof. Epstein.

Introductory Material

1. Supreme Court's Procedures/Processes

2. The Justices of the Roberts Court

3. Especially Salient Decisions of the Roberts Court

4. Public Confidence in the Court

5. Researching the Court

Readings

• Lee Epstein, Kevin McGuire, & Thomas G. Walker, Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Rights, Liberties, and Justice. 12th ed. (Washington, D.C: CQ Press/Sage, 2025), pp. 11-22

• Adam Liptak, “A Transformative Term at the Most Conservative Supreme Court in Nearly a Century,” New York Times, July 1, 2022

• Adam Liptak, “In a Volatile Term, a Fractured Supreme Court Remade America,” New York Times, July 2, 2024

• John Otis, “Covering the Final, Chaotic Days of the Supreme Court Term,” New York Times, June 27, 2024

• Adam Liptak, “Supreme Court Upholds Law Disarming Domestic Abusers,” New York Times, June 21, 2024

• Adam Liptak, “How Conservatives Weaponized the First Amendment,” New York Times, New York Times, June 30, 2018

• Adam Liptak, “An Extraordinary Winning Streak for Religion at the Supreme Court,” New York Times, April 5, 2021

• Jodi Kantor & Adam Liptak, “Behind the Scenes at the Dismantling of Roe v. Wade,” New York Times, December 15, 2023

• Adam Liptak, “Supreme Court’s Abortion Rulings May Set the Stage for More Restrictions,” New York Times, June 28, 2024

• Adam Liptak, “Supreme Court Rejects Affirmative Action Programs at Harvard and U.N.C.,” New York Times, June 29, 2023

• Adam Liptak, “Supreme Court Imperils an Array of Federal Rules,” New York Times, July 1, 2024

• Adam Liptak, “Supreme Court Says Trump Has Some Immunity in Election Case,” New York Times, July 1, 2024

• Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak, “How Roberts Shaped Trump’s Supreme Court Winning Streak,” New York Times, September 15, 2024

• Abbie VanSickle & Adam Liptak, “Supreme Court Adopts Ethics Code After Reports of Undisclosed Gifts and Travel,” New York Times, November 13, 2023

• Adam Liptak, “Justice O’Connor’s Judicial Legacy Was Undermined by Court’s Rightward Shift,” New York Times, December 1, 2023

• Adam Liptak, “An ‘Imperial Supreme Court’ Asserts Its Power, Alarming Scholars,” New York Times, December 19, 2022

  Appointing Supreme Court Justices
  

  1.Vacancies

  2. Nomination

  3. Confirmation

  Readings

• Frederic J. Frommer, “‘I Would Vote to Impeach Him Right Now’: When Republicans Tried to Oust a Supreme Court Justice, It Didn’t Go Well,” Politico, September 16, 2022

• (optional) Please listen to President Franklin D. Roosevelt propose expanding the size of the Court

• Adam Liptak, “The Precedent, and Perils, of Court Packing,” New York Times, October 12, 2020 (the accompanying report is here)

• Elizabeth Dias & Adam Liptak, “To Conservatives, Barrett Has 'Perfect Combination' of Attributes for Supreme Court,” New York Times, September 20/October 26, 2020

• Adam Liptak, “Avoid, Sidestep, Retreat: Justices’ Advice on Confirmation Tactics,” New York Times, March 19, 2017

• Adam Liptak, “After Three Rounds, Judge Jackson Knows the Confirmation Playbook,” New York Times, March 21, 2022
  

Accessing the Court

1. The Emergency Docket

2. Cert Petitions

3. Processing Petitions

4. Clerks

5. Certworthy Petitions and the Roberts Court—>Lawyering

Readings

• Adam Liptak, “A Sign of the Court’s Polarization: Choice of Clerks,” New York Times, September 6, 2010

• Adam Liptak, “The Road to a Supreme Court Clerkship Starts at Three Ivy League Colleges,” New York Times, February 6, 2023

• Abbie VanSickle & Steve Eder, “Clarence Thomas’s Clerks: An ‘Extended Family’ With Reach and Power,” New York Times, December 24, 2023

• The Echo Chamber (A Small Group of Lawyers and Its Outsized Influence at the U.S. Supreme Court), Reuters, December 8, 2014. Please read the story and watch the video, “Familiar Voices”

• Mike McIntire & Jodi Cantor, The Gun Lobby’s Hidden Hand in the 2nd Amendment Battle, New York Times, June 18, 2024

Decision Making

1. Processing Cases

2. Making Decisions

Readings

• Adam Liptak, “Amid Cases on Abortion and Trump, Roberts Reflects on Supreme Court’s Work, “ New York Times, April 29, 2024

• Adam Liptak, “Justice Clarence Thomas, Long Silent, Has Turned Talkative,'“ New York Times, May 3, 2021

• Adam Liptak, “The Supreme Court’s Mixed Record on Adhering to Precedent,” New York Times, January 29, 2024

• (skim) Lee Epstein, William M. Landes, & Richard A. Posner, The Behavior of Federal Judges (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), pp. 101-116

• (optional, pp. 12-22) Lee Epstein, Urska Sadl, & Keren Weinshall, “The Role of Comparative Law in the Analysis of Judicial Behavior,“ 69 American Journal of Comparative Law 689 (2021)