In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle (2007) a divided Court struck down the efforts of school districts to integrate schools through the use of race as a factor in school assignment. Notable in the majority and dissenting opinions was sharp disagreement about the meaning of the...

The Supreme Court's 2012-2013 Term likely will be remembered best for the Justices' landmark ruling in United States v. Windsor, striking down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, and for the jurisdictional ruling in Hollingsworth v. Perry that helped to reopen the door for same-sex...

Commentary and analysis of the Supreme Court decision in Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp., and reversing two decisions from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In Ortiz, a 7-2 decision, the Court reversed the Fifth Circuit's affirmation of a Rule 23(b)(1)(B) mandatory global settlement of asbestos...

We consider the voting behavior of Supreme Court Justices, finding evidence of co-dependencies in their votes. Coincident with changes in the party imbalance of the Court over time, sharp discontinuities in these dependencies are evident. Overall, the patterns suggest a tradeoff between...