FYS522

U.S. politics seems increasingly divided by judicial power. Judicial nominees are confirmed by bare majorities in the Senate. Judicial reform, including but not limited to expanding the Supreme Court, is widely debated and characterized as either a necessity for democratic preservation or as creating a crisis that could destroy our constitutional system. How did we get here? While the scope of judicial power has been controversial since the Founding, are our present circumstances a reflection of a longstanding controversy or is something new happening? This seminar takes on these questions by exploring how and why legitimate judicial power and the capacity for the courts to support social change may be conceptualized differently by politicians, political scientists, lawyers, and the people themselves.