The Supreme Court in Conference: 1940-1985

Professor Dickson has used the conference notes of Justices Brennan, Burton, Clark, Douglas, and to a lesser degree Frankfurter and Jackson to compile a list of conference notes for more than two hundred landmark cases from 1945- 1985. He has transcribed and heavily annotated notes to make them more accessible and meaningful to readers. The project draws out some of the patterns, tendencies, and personalities of the conference and answers some of the questions long asked about the Court: Do the Justices bargain with each other for votes? How do Chief Justices manipulate the conference and control opinion assignments? Do Justices come into the conference with their minds already made up? Who takes a leadership role in conference and with which cases? Who are the crucial swing votes?