Chapter 1 The Supreme Court: Policy Maker and Teacher 3
Constitutional Conflicts 4
An Overview of the Constitution 5
Getting the Supreme Court to Play Its Role 6
Basic Features of a Supreme Court Opinion 14
Chapter 2 The Constitution in a Nutshell 17
The Court as Supervisor of the Boundaries of Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Authority (The First Feature) 17
The Court as Umpire of Federal-State Relations (The Second Feature) 22
The Court as Supervisor of Government's Relationship to the Individual (The Third Feature) 24
The Court as Enforcer of Government Evenhandedness: Equal Protection (The Fourth Feature) 28
The Court as Supervisor of Government's Relationship with Religion (The Fifth Feature) 30
Constitutionality of Federal and State Law: An Addendum 31
Chapter 3 Opinion Writing in the Supreme Court 33
Writing a Supreme Court Opinion: The General Problem 33
Constraints and Expectations 35
Chapter 4 The Legal Materials Used in Building a Constitutional Opinion 45
Originalism and Nonoriginalism 46
Activism and Restraint, Liberalism and Conservatism 59
Illustrative Examples 61
The Opinions of Chief Justice Marshall: An Addendum 69
Chapter 5 Tests, or Standards of Review 73
Tests in General 73
Selected Examples of Tests 75
Chapter 6 Precedent 83
A Terminological Interlude 83
The English Doctrine of Precedent 85
The Doctrine of Precedent (Stare Decisis) in the Supreme Court 89
More on Distinguishing Precedent 93
Expanding the Meaning of Precedent 96
Working with Conflicting Lines of Precedent 100
The Effects of Narrow and Broad Readings of Precedent: An Addendum 102
Chapter 7 Strategies of Justification 105
The Syllogism and Deductive Reasoning 105
Deduction and the Analogy 112
Deduction and Balancing 113
Judicial Disagreements 119
Chapter 8 Understanding a Supreme Court Opinion 125
The Facts 125
The Majority Opinion 126
Concurring and Dissenting Opinions 135
The Dynamics of Opinion Writing 138
Reading and Interpreting Supreme Court Opinions 138.