Part One. Introductory Material (January 14)

1. Introduction to the Supreme Court

1. Procedures and Processes
2. Thumbnail Sketch of the Court: Its History and Current Status
   

2. Introduction to the Course

1. A collaboration between law and social science
2. Your paper assignment
3. In-class discussion leaders
   

Part Two. Social Science and the Court (January 21)

This session will be a lab on how to use the U.S. Supreme Court Database, as well as on how to read social science articles and Court decisions. To prepare for the lab, you should take a look at the documentation to the database. (Click here for the documentation in Word format; click here for a .pdf file.) You also should read this paper, " Becoming an Intelligent User of the Spaeth Databases."

Part Three. Getting on the Court (January 28)

1. The Appointment Process

1. Retirements from the Court
2. Explaining the Nomination and Confirmation of Supreme Court Justices
3. Who Gets on the Court?
4. Selecting Justices Elsewhere: European Constitutional Courts
   

Readings:

• Segal and Spaeth, Chapter 5 (for background)
  
• Brian J. Moraski and Charles R. Shipan. 1999. The Politics of Supreme Court Nominations: A Theory of Institutional Choice and Constraints. American Journal of Political Science 43: 1069. (Click on title to link to this article.)
• Lee Epstein, Jack Knight, & Andrew Martin. 2003. The Norm of Prior Judicial Experience and Its Consequences for Career Diversity on the U.S. Supreme Court. California Law Review 91: 903. (Click on the title for a .pdf file containing this article.)
  

Discussion group #1 will lead this session.

Part Four. Getting into the Court (February 4)

1. The Problem: Access to the Court

1. A Look at the Process
2. The Importance of Access: Caseload and Agenda-Setting

2. Explaining Gatekeeping Decisions

Readings:

• Nancy Staudt. 2004. Modeling Standing. New York University Law Review, forthcoming. (Click on the title for a .pdf file containing this article.)
• Segal and Spaeth, Chapter 6

Discussion group #2 will lead this session.

Part Five. Legal and Attitudinal Accounts of Court Decisions (February 11, February 18)

1. An Introduction to Decision Making

1. Studying Decision Making: The Evolution of the Field of Study
2. Overview of the Key Controversies

Reading: Segal and Spaeth, pp. 44-48

2. "Legal" Models

1. The Model
2. The Role of Facts and Precedent
   

Readings:

• Segal and Spaeth, Chapters 2 and 7
• Lee Epstein, Andrew D. Martin, and Lisa Baldez. Do We Still Need an ERA? (Click on the title for a copy of this paper.)
  

Discussion group #3 will lead this session.

3. The Attitudinal Model

1. The Model
2. Debates over the Model
   

Reading: Segal and Spaeth, pp. 86-96; pp. 312-325

Discussion group #4 will lead this session.

4. The Supreme Court Forecasting Project

Readings:

• Visit the Forecasting Project's web site at: http://wusct.wustl.edu/
• Symposium on the Forecasting Project. (Click on the title for the symposium.)
  

Part Six. Strategic Accounts of Court Decisions (February 25, March 3)

1. The Internal Context of Judging

1. The Early Studies and an Overview of the "Strategic Revolution"
2. The Contemporary Approach
3. Leadership and Opinion Assignment
   

Readings:

• Epstein and Knight, Chapters 1-4
• Forest Maltzman and Paul J. Wahlbeck. 1996. May It Please the Chief? Opinion Assignments in the Rehnquist Court. American Journal of Political Science 40:421. (Click on title to link to article.)
  

Discussion group #5 will lead this session.

2. The External Context of Judging

Readings:

• William N. Eskridge, Jr. 1991. Civil Rights Legislation in the 1990s. California Law Review 79: 613. (Click on title for a brief excerpt of this article.)
• Epstein and Knight, Chapter 5
• Segal and Spaeth, pp. 97-110, 326-349
  

Discussion group #6 will lead this session.

Part Seven. Interest Groups Attorneys, and the Public
(March 17, March 24)

1. Interest Groups and Attorneys

Readings:

• Linda Greenhouse, What Got into the Court? (Click on the title for the paper.)
• Grutter v. Bollinger (2003); Lawrence v. Texas (2003) (Click on the case names for excerpts of the Court's decisions. Pay particular attention to the justices' use of the arguments of the parties and various amici.)
  

Discussion group #7 will lead this session.

2. Public Opinion

Readings:

• Charles H. Franklin and Liane C. Kosaki. 1989. Republican Schoolmaster. American Political Science Review 83:751. (Click on title to link to article.)
• James Gibson, et al. 2004. The Supreme Court and the Presidential Election of 2000 (Click on the title for the paper.)
  

Part Eight. The Impact of the Court (March 31)

Reading: Walter F. Murphy, C. Herman Pritchett, and Lee Epstein, The Impact of the Court (Click on the title for the chapter.)

(Class will not meet on April 7. We'll have in-class paper presentations on April 14 and 21.)