Deciding to Decide

Much of the conversation about the Constitution's meaning centers on the work of the federal courts, but we often forget that the federal judiciary is largely the creation of Congress. The Judiciary Act of 1789 put in place the basic structure of the federal judiciary, and the Judiciary Act of 1925 gave the Supreme Court almost complete discretion over the cases it would hear through certiorari jurisdiction. Deciding whether to decide a case is one of the primary ways the Supreme Court exercises power today.

Om Podcasten

The 1787 Project is the podcast version of the lectures for Professor Justin Dyer's socially-distanced class on the U.S. Constitution at the University of Missouri. Running from August 2020 - May 2021, the course is about how the U.S. Constitution of 1787 frames the way we organize our life together as a political community. Published twice a week, the episodes explore who gets to decide big questions of public policy and why, analyze the design of our national political institutions and the contested boundaries between them, and look at the structure of constitutional rights.