The functioning of the U.S. government is a bit messier than Americans would like to think. The general understanding of policymaking has Congress making the laws, executive agencies implementing them, and the courts applying the laws as written—as long as those laws are constitutional. Making Policy, Making Law fundamentally challenges this conventional wisdom, arguing that no dominant institution—or even a roughly consistent pattern of relationships—exists among the various players in th...

In Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Rights, Liberties, and Justice, bestselling authors Lee Epstein, Kevin T. McGuire, and Thomas G. Walker show students how political factors influence judicial decisions and shape the development of constitutional law. The Twelfth Edition, updated with additional material such as recent court rulings, more than 500 supplemental cases, and greater coverage of freedom of expression, will facilitate a deep...

A hilarious collection from McSweeney's that "achieves the sensation of being hit by a hip, humorous train.... Breaks mold after mold in hilarious fashion" (The New York Times).Now more than ever, Americans are troubled by questions. As sweaty modernity thrusts itself upon us, the veil of ignorance that cloaked our nation hangs in tatters, tattered tatters. Our "funny bones" are neither fun nor bony. Glum is the new giddy, and the old giddy wasn't too gidd...

Free speech and academic freedom have long been hot topics on college campuses. Free Speech: A Campus Toolkit equips students with the tools they need to make informed judgments about campus controversies for themselves. Rather than telling them what to think about the question of free speech, prominent scholars and experts Rebecca L. Brown, Lee Epstein, Adam Liptak, and Andrew D. Martin weave theoretical and historical analysis with contemporary examples to help ...

Free speech and academic freedom have long been hot topics on college campuses. Free Speech: A Campus Toolkit equips students with the tools they need to make informed judgments about campus controversies for themselves. Rather than telling them what to think about the question of free speech, prominent scholars and experts Rebecca L. Brown, Lee Epstein, Adam Liptak, and Andrew D. Martin weave theoretical and historical analysis with contemporary examples to help ...

In Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Institutional Powers and Constraints, bestselling authors Lee Epstein, Kevin T. McGuire, and Thomas G. Walker show students how political factors influence judicial decisions and shape the development of constitutional law. The Twelfth Edition, updated with additional material such as recent court rulings, more than 500 supplemental cases, and greater coverage of executive, legislative, and judicial po...

These are momentous times for the comparative analysis of judicial behaviour. Once the sole province of U.S. scholars—and mostly political scientists at that—now, researchers throughout the world, drawing on history, economics, law, and psychology, are illuminating how and why judges make the choices they do and what effect those choices have on society. Bringing together leading scholars in the field, The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Judicial Behaviour consists of ten sections,...

Excellent balance of case excerpts and author explanation, highly appropriate for undergraduate students.—Dr. Wendy Brame, Briar Cliff UniversityPolitical factors influence judicial decisions. Arguments and input from lawyers and interest groups, the ebb and flow of public opinion, and especially the ideological and behavioral inclinations of the justices all combine to shape the development of constitutional doctrine. Drawing from political science as much as from ...

The past decade has witnessed a worldwide explosion of work aimed at illuminating judicial-behavior: the choices judges make and the consequences of their choices. We focus on strategic accounts of judicial-behavior. As in other approaches to judging, preferences and institutions play a central role but strategic accounts are unique in one important respect: They draw attention to the interdependent - i.e., the strategic - nature of judicial decisions. On strategic accounts, judges do not ...

The Supreme Court Compendium provides historical and statistical information on the Supreme Court: its institutional development; caseload; decision trends; the background, nomination, and voting behavior of its justices; its relationship with public, governmental, and other judicial bodies; and its impact. With over 180 tables and figures, this new edition is intended to capture the full retrospective picture through the 2013-2014 term of the Roberts Court and the momento...

This volume convincingly lays to rest two held beliefs that have long impeded scholarly analysis of the role of courts and litigation in American politics: 1) that group resort to the courts is a rather recent phenomenon resulting from actions of the Warren Court and the Civil Rights Movement; and 2) that unique and distinctive features of the judiciary somehow place it beyond or outside analytic frameworks used to study and analyze the role, nature and functioning of other governing insti...

The authors analyze abortion and death penalty decisions by the Supreme Court and argue that they provide prime examples of abrupt legal change. After proposing that the strength of legal arguments has at least as much impact on Court decisions as do public opinion and justices' political beliefs, they focus on the way litigators propel certain issues onto the Court’s agenda and seek to persuade the justices to affect legal change.