Authors

• Stephen I. Vladeck, Georgetown University Law Center

What's Really Wrong with the Supreme Court -- and Why and How We Should Fix It

Abstract

If this Essay accomplishes nothing else, hopefully it at least convinces you that [the Supreme Court's] hard-earned authority is more fickle than it might appear at first blush—and that its continuing maintenance depends upon far more than the letter of the Constitution or the ipse dixit of the Justices. Ultimately, there is nothing inevitable about the Supreme Court we had, the Court we have, or the Court we need. Rather, the persistence of a Court that can live up to its intended constitutional function depends upon all of us—not just to understand the institutional history of the Supreme Court of the United States, but to learn from it.

This abstract has been taken from the author's conclusion.

Comments

This essay is an edited version of the James Goold Cutler Lecture delivered at William & Mary Law School on February 4, 2026.

Repository Citation

Stephen I. Vladeck, What's Really Wrong with the Supreme Court -- and Why and How We Should Fix It, 68 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 211 (2026), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol68/iss1/5

Publication Information

68 William & Mary Law Review 211-233 (2026)