The Politics of American Courts

Catalog description

This course examines the political science of law and courts. This is not a course on constitutional law, and the focus will not be on doctrinal analysis or close reading of cases). Instead, we will evaluate courts as political institutions and judges as political actors. The topics we will study include: what courts do; different legal systems; the operation of legal norms; the U.S. judicial system; the power of courts; constraints on judicial power; judicial review; the origin of judicial institutions; how and why Supreme Court justices make decisions; case selection; conflict between the Court and the other branches of government; decision making and conflict within the judicial hierarchy; the place of courts in American political history; and judicial appointments.