Seventeen thought-provoking essays in this sophisticated yet accessible reader demonstrate how political scientists conduct research on law, courts, and the judicial process, and at the same time answer interesting, substantive questions. Illustrating the breadth and depth of judicial politics studies, the essays convey to students the array of contemporary thinking -- both theoretical and methodological -- at work in the field.

The book's five parts cover subjects taught in most judicial politics courses. Because each chapter stands alone, instructors have the flexibility of assigning less than the whole book or chapters in a different order. Topics examined range from information used by voters electing judges to the credibility of victims of sexualized violence.

Accessible to both undergraduate and graduate students, Contemplating Courts offers fascinating views into both the law and courts field and the research process itself. Epstein provides in the first chapter an overview of the key elements of judicial process research and defines key terms. Technical notes and methodology appendices offer students additional guidance.

1. Studying Law and Courts 
Lee Epstein

Part I. ACTORS IN THE LEGAL SYSTEM 

2. Electing Judges
Lawrence Baum

3. Lobbying for Justice: The Rise of Organized Conflict in the Politics of Federal Judgeships
Gregory A. Caldeira and John R. Wright

4. Capital Investments in the U.S. Supreme Court: Winning with Washington Representation
Kevin T. McGuire

5. The Mysterious Case of Establishment Clause Litigation: How Organized Litigants Foiled Legal Change
Joseph F. Kobylka

Part II. TRIAL COURTS

6. Plea Bargaining and Local Legal Culture
Thomas W. Church

7. Imagined Pasts: Sexualized Violence and the Revision of Truth
Kim Lane Scheppele

8. The Fired Football Coach (Or, How Trial Courts Make Policy)
Lynn Mather

Part III. LOWER APPELLATE COURTS

9. Patterns of Appellate Litigation, 1945-1990
Christine B. Harrington and Daniel S. Ward

10. Decision Making on the U.S. Courts of Appeals 
Jeffrey A. Segal, Donald R. Songer, and Charles M. Cameron

Part IV. THE U.S. SUPREME COURT 

11. The Dynamics and Determinants of Agenda Change in the Rehnquist Court
Richard L. Pacelle, Jr.

12. By Consent of the Governed: Directions in Constitutional Theory
Leslie Friedman Goldstein

13. The Attitudinal Model
Harold J. Spaeth

14. The Role of the Supreme Court in American Society: Playing the Reconstruction Game
Lee Epstein and Thomas G. Walker

Part V. THE IMPACT OF COURTS

15. Media, Knowledge, and Public Evaluations of the Supreme Court
Charles H. Franklin and Liane C. Kosaki

16. Do Court Decisions Matter?
Lauren Bowen

17. The Real World of Constitutional Rights: The Supreme Court and the Implementation of the Abortion Decisions
Gerald N. Rosenberg

REFERENCE MATERIAL

Appendix A: Regression and Pooled Cross-Sectional Time Series 
David C. Nixon

Appendix B: Probit and Logit
David C. Nixon

Appendix C: Conducting Research on Law and Courts: Sources of Data 

References

Table of Cases

Index 

". . . My students and I were greatly impressed by virtually every aspect of the book, from the breadth of its coverage (from trial courts to appellate courts), to its depth (these were not cursory 'overview' chapters; most report original research), to the extremely high quality of every chapter. There hasn't been a better reader in judicial behavior and process for the last two decades. Epstein should be warmly congratualted for doing the field such a tremendous service by publishing this book."

"Contemplating Courts adds a stimulating, topical, and informative option to the current menu of undergraduate and graduate readers. It will be challenging and fun for students to read, and hopefully help political science faculty recruit future scholars to the empirical study of politics and courts. Its strength is the very high quality of the work included in it . . ."

Lee Epstein is Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of Political Science and Professor of Law at Washington University. She received her Ph.D. from Emory University. She is the author of Conservatives in Court (1985); coauthor of The Supreme Court and Legal Change: Abortion and the Death Penalty (1992) with Joseph Kobylka; The Supreme Court Compendium: Data,Decisions, and Developments, 3rd ed. (2003) with Jeffrey A. Segal, Harold J. Spaeth, and Thomas G. Walker; and The Choices Justices Make (1998) with Jack Knight, which won the C. Herman Pritchett Award for the best book on law and courts. In addition, she is coeditor, with Walter F. Murphy and C. Herman Pritchett of Courts, Judges and Politics, 5th ed. (2002).