The Form and Function of the Supreme Court
Professor Smith has kindly provided the following sources
for those interested in learning more about the workings
of the Supreme Court:
Bickel, Alexander M. The Least Dangerous Branch,
The Supreme Court at the Bar of Politics, 2nd Ed.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.
Epstein, Lee and Knight, Jack. The Choices Justices
Make. Washington DC: CQ Press, 1998.
George, Tracy, and Epstein, Lee. “On the Nature
of Supreme Court Decision Making.” American Political
Science Review, 1992, 86:323-337.
George, Tracey E. and Solimine, Michael E. “Supreme
Court Monitoring of the Courts of Appeals En Banc.”
Supreme Court Econ. Rev, 2001, 9:171.
Hettinger, Virginia A., Stefanie A. Lindquist, and Wendy
L. Martinek. Judging On a Collegial Court: Influences
on Appellate Decision Making. Charlottesville:
University of Virginia Press, 2006.
Klein, David E. and Robert J. Hume. “Fear of Reversal
as an Explanation of Lower Court Compliance.”
Law & Society Review, 2006, 33(3): 579-606.
Kornhauser, Lewis A. “Adjudication by a Resource
Constrained Team: Hierarchy and Precedent in a Judicial
System” Southern California Law Review, 2005,
68:1605-1629.
Lax, Jeffrey R. “Certiorari and Compliance in
The Judicial Hierarchy: Discretion, Reputation, and
the Rule Of Four.” Journal of Theoretical Politics,
2003, 15(1):61-86.
Lee, Emery G., III. “Precedent Direction and Compliance:
Horizontal Stare Decisis on the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Sixth Circuit.” Seton Hall Circuit Review,
2005, 1:005.
Smith, Charles Anthony. “Credible Commitments
and the Early American Supreme Court” Law &
Society Review, 2008, Vol 42:1 March, 75-110.
Schwartz, Bernard. A History of the Supreme Court.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
I won’t add too much here as my suggestions for
“General Resources” for the issue include
so much relevant material. For the Supreme Court’s
creation, I refer you to our September 2007 issue on
the Constitution:.
/historynow/09_2007/index.php
If you don’t have time for the book length histories
of the Court listed in my “General” sources,
I recommend the brief summaries of the Court under individual
Chief Justices at the SCHS Website’s “History”
segment:
http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/subs_history/02_c.html
The same Website’s “How the Court Works”
section provides explanations of any questions you have
left when you’ve finished Professor Smith’s
essay. It’s an excellent guide to the Court’s
procedures:
http://www.supremecourthistory.org/03_how/subs_how/03_a.html
Here are some more specialized studies. This examines
the role of the justices’ conferences in reaching
decisions:
Dickson, Del, Ed. The Supreme Court In Conference,
1940-1985: The Private Discussions Behind Nearly 300
Supreme Court Decisions. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2001.
This author examines the changing role of the Chief
Justice:
Steamer, Robert J. Chief Justice: Leadership and
the Supreme Court. Columbia, SC: University of
South Carolina Press, 1986.
For my money, modern access to tape recorded arguments
before the Court (and to the Justices’ sharp questions)
can help anyone understand just how the Court works.
The Oyez project at Northwestern provides links to these
audios as well as to transcriptions of the tapes. Listening
to the spoken words and comparing their impact to the
same words on paper is a learning experience in itself:
http://www.oyez.org/
