The U.S. Supreme Court in Contemporary Democratic Politics

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

The United States Supreme Court exerts substantial influence in contemporary American politics. Drawing upon insights from American political development and public law, this panel addresses important questions about the contemporary Court and its interactions with the broader political system: How have parties and political activists used the Court to advance their goals? To what extent are such efforts successful? And how have other institutions and political actors responded to new uses of judicial power?

Sub Unit

• Division 26: Law and Courts

Individual Presentations

• Variations on the Themes of Regime Theory - Mark A. Graber, University of Maryland Carey School of Law

• Conditioning the Counter-Majoritarian Difficulty: Parties and Judicial Power - Warren L Snead, Swarthmore College; Kumar Ramanathan, University of Illinois, Chicago

• Off-Balance: The Structurally Conservative Nature of American Courts - Brian Highsmith, Harvard University; Maya Sen, Harvard University; Kathleen Thelen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• States and the U.S. Supreme Court - Emily Zackin, Johns Hopkins University

Chair

• Warren L Snead Swarthmore College

Discussants

• Carol Nackenoff Swarthmore College

• Kumar Ramanathan University of Illinois, Chicago