The Contemporary U.S. Supreme Court

December 2018

Outline and Readings

Notes:
(1) These are recommended readings. Don't worry if you can't get to all of them before the start of the course.
(2) This is hardly an inclusive list of the many studies on the contemporary Court. If you are interested in additional readings, please contact Lee Epstein.

I. Introductory Material

1. The Course

2. Overview of the Court's Processes/Procedures

3. The Justices

4. The Court's Greatest Hits (So Far)

5. Researching the Court

6. The Exam

Readings

• Lee Epstein & Thomas G. Walker, Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Rights, Liberties, and Justice 10th ed. (Washington, D.C: CQ Press, 2019), pp. 9-20

• Philip Bump, How Brett Kavanaugh Would Shift the Supreme Court to the Right, Washington Post, July 10, 2018
  

• Adam Liptak, Supreme Court Ruling Makes Same-Sex Marriage a Right Nationwide, New York Times, June 26, 2015

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

II. Appointing Supreme Court Justices

1. Vacancies

2. Nomination

3. Confirmation

Readings

• (optional) Lee Epstein & Jeffrey A. Segal, Advice and Consent (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 47-83

• Lee Epstein, William M. Landes, & Richard A. Posner, The Behavior of Federal Judges (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), Chapter 8 (esp. pp. 337-368)

• Adam Liptak Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan Muse Over a Cookie-Cutter Court, New York Times, September 5, 2016

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

III. Lawyering

1. Types of Lawyers

2. Tools of Lawyering: Briefs, Oral Argument

Readings

• Adam Liptak, Why Obama Struggles at Court, and Trump May Strain to Do Better, New York Times, January 23, 2017. (The L. Epstein/E. Posner study is here.)

• (optional) Richard J. Lazarus, Advocacy Before and Within the Supreme Court, 96 Georgetown Law Journal 1487 (2008)

• Adam Liptak, Justices Offer a Receptive Ear to Business Interests, New York Times, December 18, 2010

• Adam Liptak, Clarence Thomas Breaks 10 Years of Silence at Supreme Court, New York Times, February 29, 2016

• (optional) Lee Epstein, William M. Landes, & Richard A. Posner, The Behavior of Federal Judges (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), Chapter 7

IV. Decision Making

1. Processing Cases

2. Making Decisions

Readings

• Lee Epstein, William M. Landes, & Richard A. Posner, The Behavior of Federal Judges (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), Chapter 1

• Adam Liptak & Alicia Parlapiano, Conservatives in Charge, the Supreme Court Moved Right, New York Times, June 28, 2018

• Lee Epstein & Jack Knight, Reconsidering Judicial Preferences, 16 Annual Review of Political Science 19.1 (2013)

V. External Relations

1. The Elected Branches

2. The Public

Readings

• Lee Epstein & Jack Knight, Efficacious Judging on Apex Courts. In Comparative Judicial Review, ed. Erin F. Delaney & Rosalind Dixon. Elgar Publishing (2018).

• Emily Bazelon,When the Supreme Court Lurches Right, New York Times, August 22, 2018