Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Peter Irons's Stork Theory of Supreme Court Cases
I was listening to a wonderful series of lectures by legal historian Peter Irons, and he mentioned the importance of disabusing people of the “stork theory” of Supreme Court cases. (This set of lectures, offered by The Teaching Company, is well worth the time.) According to Irons, many observers supposed – erroneously – that just as babies are supposedly delivered by storks, disputes simply show up on the Supreme Court docket. We overlook the tremendous effort, encompassing years in many instances, by lawyers, parties, experts, and others to develop the facts of the case. They are not ready-made, but are fashioned from the available materials.
