The Roberts Court
Spring Quarter 2019
Outline & 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 Roberts Court. If you are interested in additional readings, please contact Lee Epstein.
I. Introductory Material
Procedures/Processes
The Justices of the Roberts Court
The Roberts Court's Greatest Hits (So Far) and What's to Come
Researching the Court
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
Vacancies
Nomination
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. Access to the Court
Petitions
Processing Petitions
Role of Clerks
Certworthy Petitions and the Roberts Court
Decline in the Plenary Docket
Readings
Adam Liptak, A Cautious Supreme Court Sets a Modern Record for Consensus, New York Times, June 25, 2017.
Adam Liptak, Gorsuch, in Sign of Independence, is Out of Supreme Court’s Clerical Pool, New York Times, May 1, 2017
Adam Liptak, A Sign of the Court’s Polarization: Choice of Clerks, New York Times, September 6, 2010
The Echo Chamber (A Small Group of Lawyers and Its Outsized Influence at the U.S. Supreme Court), Reuters, December 8, 2014
Adam Liptak, Justices Disclose Privately Paid Trips and Gifts, New York Times, June 22, 2016
IV. Lawyering
Types of Lawyers
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, Seeking Facts, Justices Settle for What Briefs Tell Them, New York Times, September 1, 2014
Adam Liptak, Clarence Thomas Breaks 10 Years of Silence at Supreme Court, New York Times, February 29, 2016
Lee Epstein, William M. Landes, & Richard A. Posner, The Behavior of Federal Judges (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), Chapter 7
V. Decision Making
Processing Cases
Writing Opinions
Making Decisions
Readings
Lee Epstein, William M. Landes, & Richard A. Posner, The Behavior of Federal Judges (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), Chapters 1,3,6
Adam Liptak, Justice Breyer Sees Value in a Global View of Law, New York Times, September 12, 2015
(optional) Lee Epstein & Jack Knight, Reconsidering Judicial Preferences, 16 Annual Review of Political Science 19.1 (2013)
VI. External Relations
The Elected Branches
The Public
Readings
(optional) 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
VII. The Future of the Roberts Court
More Departures?
A New Direction for the Court?
Reading
Adam Liptak, Supreme Court Agenda in the Trump Era? A Justice Seems to Supply One, New York Times, November 28, 2016