The Politics of Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court » (1st Edition)

Thomas G. Hansford is assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Merced. James F. Spriggs, II, is professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the coauthor of "Crafting Law on the Supreme Court", which won the C. Herman Pritchett Award, given annually by the American Political Science Association for the best book on law and courts by a political scientist.

"This is the most important book ever written regarding legal change in the Supreme Court. It will change the dialogue on this topic. The authors address a crucial question and relate it to two of the three theoretical models that currently interest Supreme Court scholars."—Saul Brenner, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, coauthor of Stare Indecisis: Alteration of Precedent on the Supreme Court, 1946-1992

"This book makes an important contribution to the understanding of judicial behavior. Its authors carefully develop their theory and apply it to the treatment of precedent in an elegant way that leads to clear predictions about the Supreme Court's behavior."—Lawrence Baum, Ohio State University, author of The Supreme Court and American Courts: Process and Policy

Mark S. Hurwitz - Political Science Quarterly

The authors have done a commendable job in showing how both law and politics matter when the Supreme Court interprets precedent. . . . [Their] uncluttered explanation of the substance of their theory and findings makes The Politics of Precedent accessible to any student of the Supreme Court.