The Supreme Court and Legal Change
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press (1992)

Lee Epstein, Washington University in St. Louis
Joseph F. Kobylka, SMU

Description (from UNC Press)

The authors analyze abortion and death penalty decisions by the Supreme Court and argue that they provide prime examples of abrupt legal change. After proposing that the strength of legal arguments has at least as much impact on Court decisions as do public opinion and justices' political beliefs, they focus on the way litigators propel certain issues onto the Court's agenda and seek to persuade the justices to affect legal change.

Contents

Preface
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. The Agents of Legal Change
Chapter 3. Capital Punishment I: The Road to Furman
Chapter 4. Capital Punishment II: From Furman to McCleskey
Chapter 5. Abortion I: The Road to Roe
Chapter 6. Abortion II: From Roe to Webster
Chapter 7. The Life of the Law: Understanding the Dynamics of Legal Change
Appendix 1. Profile of Capital Punishment Cases
Appendix 2. Profile of Abortion Cases
Notes
Tables of Cases
References
Index

keywords: legal change, abortion, death penalty, capital punishment, lawyers, litigators, Supreme Court litigation, amicus briefs, amici curiae