Philosophy Department

Justice and the Supreme Court (PHLU 4930)

Charles Kelbley
 

Is the Supreme Court inescapably a “political” court when it is deciding constitutional cases?  Are its constitutional decisions subjective, without secure foundations in the law?  The subject of this seminar will deal with such questions by examining recent decisions of the Court as well as relevant commentary on them.  Many of the cases will concern “hot-button” issues such as abortion, affirmative action, the juvenile death penalty, national security, free speech, eminent domain, and establishment clause issues involving the Ten Commandments and Pledge of Allegiance.  A focus of seminar discussions will be the role of the Court and the extent to which its constitutional law decisions can be said to be legal, i.e., based on the Constitution (as well as what that means) and whether, instead, they tend to be driven by policy considerations and other non-legal factors, including the prevalence of diverging value premises of individual Justices.  In addition to court decisions, it is anticipated that we will read a forthcoming book by philosopher/lawyer Ronald Dworkin, Justice in Robes, as well as writings by federal judge Richard Posner, Cass Sunstein, Robert Bork and others.