When I was a sophomore in college, my friend and mentor Professor Laura Beth Nielsen assigned me to read Gerald Rosenberg's The Hollow Hope as part of a seminar on legal studies. Professor Rosenberg's compelling and controversial book piqued my interest in the role of courts in our society. Time, reflection, and my continued study of law and politics have only sharpened my interest in his project and my objections to his thesis. In many ways, this book is my term paper for that seminar, now eight years overdue.

I have been aided in this project by the helpful contributions of numerous scholars, including professors Paul Brace, Daniel Butler, Bradley Canon, Alan Gerber, Jerry Goldman, Mark Graber, Thomas Keck, Andrew Martin, Kenneth Scheve, Stephen Skowronek, and Peter Swenson, as well as my graduate school colleagues Stephen Engel, Judkins Mathews, Joshua Pheterson, Joseph Sempolinski, and the members of the Yale Graduate Student Colloquium on American Politics. I am indebted to each of them for their thoughtful suggestions and critiques.

I was fortunate to be directed through this process by an exceptional group of diverse scholars: professors Bruce Ackerman, Donald Green, Gregory Huber, and David Mayhew. These men have shaped my approach to the world around me – the questions I ask and the way that I answer them. I am grateful for their many invaluable insights, and it is my fervent hope that this manuscript reflects their influence on me.