GOV 493I U.S. SUPRM CRT:LEGAL OR POLITC

The U.S. Supreme Court is intensely and simultaneously both a legal and a political institution, yet its decision-making processes are the least transparent of all U.S. government institutions. This course develops insights into the implications of the conflict between legal and political roles for the Court as an institution, the broader legal system, and the individual justices. Through scholarly analysis, judicial biographies, and judicial writing that spans two centuries from the Marshall to the Roberts Court, students develop their own legal and judicial philosophies.