The Supreme Court
An Analytic History of Constitutional Decision Making

Provides a quantitative history of the development of constitutional law in the United States during the past 150 years.

Tom S. Clark (Author)

9781108436939, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 March 2019

470 pages, 68 b/w illus. 16 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.67 kg

'… this excellent book is positioned to significantly influence the path of future scholarship. First, it stands out as a model of how rigorous social scientific methods can enhance a detailed historical treatment of decision making on the Supreme Court. Clark also shines a spotlight on the question of how constitutional decision making may play out in an increasingly polarized political system - both external to the Court and among the justices themselves.' Patrick C. Wohlfarth, Law and Politics Book Review

This book presents a quantitative history of constitutional law in the United States and brings together humanistic and social-scientific approaches to studying law. Using theoretical models of adjudication, Tom S. Clark presents a statistical model of law and uses the model to document the historical development of constitutional law. Using sophisticated statistical methods and historical analysis of court decisions, the author documents how social and political forces shape the path of law. Spanning the history of constitutional law since Reconstruction, this book illustrates the way in which the law evolves with American life and argues that a social-scientific approach to the history of law illuminates connections across disparate areas of the law, connected by the social context in which the Constitution has been interpreted.

1. The history of constitutional law: inside and outside
2. Modeling constitutional doctrine
3. An empirical model of constitutional decision making
4. The cases, votes, and opinions
5. Patterns in constitutional law
6. From civil war to regulation and federal power
7. War, security, and culture clash
8. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Constitutional & administrative law [LND], Political economy [KCP], Constitution: government & the state [JPHC], Politics & government [JP], History of the Americas [HBJK]