The Supreme Court's involvement in many hot political and personal conflicts makes crucial an understanding of its internal workings and evolution. This book gives students a firm historical and institutional base upon which to evaluate contemporary Supreme Court decisions and the impact of those decisions on the lives of ordinary citizens.

"Isaac Unah's book is a very welcome and exciting addition to undergraduate teaching on the Supreme Court. The book is exceptionally well written and engaging; it is rich in historical detail about key events and people that shaped this important institution. Examples cover the early days of the nation, through its development, and into modern and recent times. The book effectively introduces the most important questions and theories about the Supreme Court to students in a way that gives them a comprehensive view of political science research on the Court. I am looking forward to using this book in my classes." - Valerie Hoekstra, Associate Professor of Political Science, Arizona State University

"In The Supreme Court in American Politics, Unah provides an incredibly comprehensive portrait of the Court as a political institution, carefully tracking and exploring the appointment process, decision making from certiorari review to oral argument to merits determination, and finally the impact of the Court s decisions. Carefully grounded in the existing literature, this book will serve graduate and undergraduate students of the Supreme Court well by laying a solid and sophisticated groundwork for their understanding of this important institution." - Stefanie A. Lindquist, Thomas W. Gregory Professor of Law, The University of Texas at Austin

"Isaac Unah s The Supreme Court in American Politics successfully synthesizes legal, historical, and behavioral scholarship to provide an insightful yet accessible book on the U.S. Supreme Court. Unah s self-described evolutionary approach carefully chronicles major changes in the Court s process, personnel, agenda, and decisions through U.S. history while also utilizing political science research to explain the causes of those changes, distinguishing this work from other books on the Supreme Court. Throughout the chapters on different aspects of the Court, the author asks the types of questions that students, casual court observers, and scholars will find interesting and important, and he provides historical examples, empirical evidence, and social science theory to help the reader answer those questions.This is an excellent compact resource for anyone interested in multiple approaches to understanding the role ofthe U.S. Supreme Court in the American political system." - J. Mitchell Pickerill, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Washington State University

Autorentext
ISSAC UNAH is Associate Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.

Inhalt
What is Nature and Power of the Supreme Court in American Life? The Politics and Process of Judicial Selection: What is the Role of Politics in the Selection of Justices to the U.S Supreme Court? Agenda Setting in the Supreme Court Politics of Decision Making on the Merits Assessing the Impact of Supreme Court Decisions Supreme Court Justices in the American Mind