The Supreme Court & American Political Development Edited by Ronald Kahn and Ken I. Kersch From the Introduction: ….… This books primary concern is with the development of constitutional doctrine (and meaning) as elaborated by the Supreme Court. In the chapters that follow, contributors canvass the breadth of American history to offer a series of case studies in constitutional change. These studies are designed both as efforts at illuminating important moments in constitutional history for their own sake and as contributions to a collaborative project aimed at constructing a broader theoretical model of the nature and processes of constitutional development. The understandings of constitutional development advanced in each of this book's chapters are often distinctive, with implied (and sometimes explicit) points of disagreement existing among our contributors. At the same time, however, each was selected as a contributor for this volume because he or she shared a common appreciation for the process of constitutional development as involving a complex interplay between factors internal to the Court itself as a legal institution called on to decide concrete cases according to preexisting law and institutional norms, and factors external to the Court, such as political, institutional, cultural, intellectual, and social forces. Thus, when considered together, the chapters that comprise this volume share a common outlook, broadly conceived, and, at the same time, provide enough room for fruitful disagreement and debate about the nature and processes of constitutional change in the Supreme Court. ….… Ronald Kahn is James Monroe Professor of Politics and Law and Director of the Law and Society Program at Oberlin College and author of The Supreme Court and Constitutional Theory, 1953-1993. Ken I. Kerschis assistant professor of politics and a member of the executive committee of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is the author of Constructing Civil Liberties: Discontinuities in the Development of American Constitutional Law.