Brain Fuel

The United States Supreme Court has assumed a central role in practically all the critical issues of our time—the war on terrorism, abortion, racial preferences, legislative districting, and even the outcome of presidential elections. How did the highest court in the land reach this level of unparalleled influence in American society? In this course, Christopher Schmidt will trace the historical foundations of the Court’s ascendancy. He will explore how an institution only roughly defined in the Constitution emerged from distinctly inauspicious beginnings to become—in some peoples’ eyes—the most powerful branch of the federal government.