Lecture Slides

1. POL 309
Spring 2019

4.  Fifty cases in 1790s
 Several refused to serve on Court
John Jay John Marshall RogerTaney

5. The Court dealt with economic issues during this period, including
antitrust laws, railroad regulation, and employment practices.

6. The Court during
EarlWarren’s
Chief Justiceship
is notable for
supporting
civil liberties.

10.  Article 3, Section 1:
 “The judicial power of the
United States, shall be
vested in one Supreme
Court, and in such inferior
courts as Congress may
from time to time ordain
and establish.”

11.  Judges keep jobs for “good behavior”
 Establishes jurisdiction of Supreme Court

12.  How many members will be on the
Supreme Court?
 Will there be lower courts?
 What actual powers will the judiciary have?

14. .
U.S.
SUPREME
COURT
APPELLATE
COURTS
DISTRICT
COURTS

15. DISTRICT COURTS
 94 trial courts in federal system
 Original jurisdiction over
Constitutional questions
APPELLATE COURTS
 12 Circuit Courts
 Appellate jurisdiction;
Cases from lower courts

18. Gerald Ford John Paul Stevens

19.  Nominee’s Ideological and Policy Preferences
 Judicial Competence
 Demographic Factors
 Political Environment

20.  Views hot-button issues could tip the Court
(and future decisions) in president’s favor

21.  Nominating someone seen as generally
qualified can quicken confirmation process
George W. Bush
nominatingWhite House
Counsel Harriet Miers
for a vacancy on the
Supreme Court.
Miers eventually
withdrew her nomination.

22. Thurgood
Marshall
Sandra Day
O’Connor
Sonia
Sotomayor

23.  What factors should a president consider?
 Approval Rating
 Senate Control
 Legislative Goals

25. ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
 Straight to Supreme Court
 Many types of cases
APPELLATE JURISDICTION
 Heard via appeal from
lower court
 Majority of cases
 Writ of certiorari :
Court agrees to review a
case on appeal
 Stare Decisis
(“let the decision stand”)

26.  Four justices must agree hear a given case
(“Rule of Four”)
 Who else has influence over the Court?
 Solicitor General
 Amicus curiae briefs

29.  Clerk of the Court
 Reporter of Decisions
 Librarian
 Public Information Office
 Law Clerks
 Who are they?
 What do they do?
Current Associate
Justice Steven Breyer
was once a law clerk.

32.  Legal Model
 Focus on legal principles
 Judicial Restraint vs. Judicial Activism
 Attitudinal Model
 Focus on policy preferences
 How we do know preferences? (Party of President)
 Strategic Model
 Focus on strategic considerations
 Justices’ decision-making; political environment

34.  Majority Opinion
 Role of Chief Justice in opinion assignment
 Plurality Opinion
 Absence of majority (4-3-2 decision)
 Concurring Opinion
 Agree with ruling; Disagree with reasoning
 Dissenting Opinion
 Disagree with ruling; Disagree with reasoning