POL S 462: The Supreme Court In American Politics

Instructor: Scott Lemieux                                                                                                                                           

Office: Gowen 114                               

In-person office hours: W 1:20-2:20, or by appointment

Virtual Office Hours: By appointment over Zoom, generally available T/TH/F 11-6

Email: slemieux@uw.edu

COVID-19 Policies: We are all in this together! In this class, masks covering nose and mouth are required, and eating and drinking (except, very briefly, for hydration) are prohibited. The instructor and TAs have the authority to remove students or cancel class if students do not comply. Non-compliant students may be reported to the Community Standards and Student Conduct office. Please wear a mask to allow class to proceed smoothly and to protect the health of yourselves, your classmates and your instructors.

If you have symptoms (Links to an external site.), please do not come to class and do get tested (Links to an external site.). For FAQs about COVID-19 and UW Policy, go here (Links to an external site.).

This class will adhere to all university policies regarding the pandemic. Class, as of the beginning of the quarter, will be in-person. If the class has to be taken online because of a policy change, we are prepared and will discuss the details at that time. 

Required Texts: Most of the class reading will be articles posted on the class’s Canvas page. There will also be three required books:

Michael Klarman, Brown V. Board Of Education And The Civil Rights Movement

Dale Carpenter, Flagrant Conduct

Laura Kalman, The Long Reach Of The Sixties: LBJ, Nixon, And The Making Of The Contemporary Supreme Court

 All texts are available at the UW bookstore, as well as all major online booksellers.

Course Description and Objectives

This course introduces students to the political role of U.S. state and federal courts, court organization, staffing, financing, judicial policy making, and the public perception of judicial process. Students in this class will be introduced to the current political issues concerning judicial institutions and legal research techniques.  Additionally, this class emphasizes written and oral communication skills.

Course Requirements

• This is a helpful guide (Links to an external site.) to the "netiquette" of online learning and interactions.
• All students are expected to abide by the University’s Code of Student Conduct http://www.washington.edu/teaching/cheating-or-plagiarism/.  Any student caught plagiarizing work or cheating on an exam will be reported to the appropriate university officials. 
• This course will comply fully with the Americans With Disabilities Act and all relevant university procedures. If you require accommodation because of a disability please consult the university’s procedures here: http://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/ (Links to an external site.)
• Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/) (Links to an external site.). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/) (Links to an external site.). 

Discussion Papers

To help with the reading and ensure wide participation, for every class for which there is reading students should prepare a 1-2 page response paper. These papers are not expected to summarize every aspect of the reading, but should make a critical point, suitable for class discussion, based on the reading. Papers are due the day of class on Canvas, and will be graded on a credit/no credit basis.

For two classes throughout the course of the quarter, students may come without a response paper with no penalty. Every subsequent failure to submit a paper will result in a penalty.

Final Paper

Students will have to write a paper, approximately 12-15 pp., giving the assessment of the literature on a topic relevant to the Supreme Court and American politics, which can include one the major themes of the class: judicial behavior, the relationship between the courts and other branches, and the role of the Supreme Court in promoting and/or constraining social change. With the permission of the instructor, students may also to a research paper on a topic related to the Supreme Court and American politics. More details will be given later in the quarter.

Participation

This is a seminar, not a lecture-driven class, and therefore depends on student preparation.  Students are also expected to read all assigned readings before class,  and treat classmates and the instructor with respect. 

 Grading Policy

Grades will be determined as follows:

40% Class participation/response papers

60% Final paper

Course Outline

Note: The syllabus represents a general plan for the course and may be subject to change, based on the discretion of the instructor. Class texts will be supplemented with additional texts posted on the class’s Canvas page. Readings in  the Canvas "files" section listed here will be denoted with an asterisk (*).

9/29: Class introduction

10/6-8:   1. The political trajectory of the Court and the how the Court is covered

Leah Litman, Melissa Murray, and Katherine Shaw, "A Podcast of One's Own"

Mark Graber, "The Coming Constitutional Yo-Yo?"  (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)

Amy Coney Barrett, "Countering the Majoritarian Difficulty (Links to an external site.)"

II. Judicial Decision-Making

10/11-13

III. The Courts and the Other Branches

10/18-20

George Lovell, Legislative Deferrals [excerpt]*

Julie Novkov, "How the Umpires Remake the Game"

IV. The Law And Social Change

10/25-11/10

Gerald Rosenberg, The Hollow Hope [excerpts]*

Michael McCann, "Reform Litigation on Trail" *

Scott Lemieux, "Don't Fear the Backlash"

Derrick Bell, "Who's Afraid of Critical Race Theory?"*

Kimberlé Crenshaw, "Race, reform, and retrenchment : transformation and legitimation in antidiscrimination law."

Klarman, Brown v. Board and the Civil Rights Movement

V. Rights from the bottom-up, or How the Sausage Gets Made

11/15-17 Dale Carpenter Flagrant Conduct

11/22 2:30 PM Optional Zoom seminar with Writing Center Director Carolyn Dapper to workshop your papers. https://washington.zoom.us/j/96398525332

CLASS CANCELLED NOVEMBER 24. OPTIONAL ZOOM MEETINGS TO DISCUSS RESEARCH PROJECTS AVAILABLE.

VI. The nomination process and the origins of our current moment

11/29-12/8 Laura Kalman, The Long Reach of the Sixties

 FINAL PAPER DUE THROUGH THE CLASS CANVAS PAGE DECEMBER 16 at 6 PM