Description

When the Constitution was written in 1787, the Founders viewed the U.S. Supreme Court as the weakest branch of government. Today, the Court’s decisions influence every aspect of our Nation’s life. This series of classes will explore the Court’s evolution and the judicial titans responsible for it. (Sign up for one, two or all three sessions in this series. See class #159 for Part 1 and class #160 for Part 2.)

This session will discuss how the Court after the Brown decision became a major protector of individual rights and liberties, issuing landmark decisions in such areas as right to counsel, voting, and, most controversially, on abortion rights. The Court’s membership became more racially and gender diverse with the appointments of Justices Thurgood Marshall, O’Connor, and Ginsburg, and public scrutiny of judicial nominations grew. The 2005 appointment of Chief Justice Roberts and eight consecutive GOP appointees over a twenty-three year period have completely remade the Court. The session will discuss how a steady stream of relatively recent decisions have rejected the judicial philosophy of earlier, more liberal Justices. The session and the course will conclude by considering whether the present Court is influenced more by political considerations than prior Courts have been, whether the Senate confirmation process has become more politicized, and whether the Court now plays a more dominant role in setting national policy than was envisioned by the Framers. If the answers to these questions are yes, what are the steps that Congress or the public at large should seriously consider to address this problem?