In planning work subsequent to The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model (1993), we determined that the best course would be to update it initially with a focus on game theory and multivariate analyses appropriate for a professional and graduate student readership. The result was The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited, which Cambridge University Press published in 2002. The next step, we decided, was to write a separate (but related) volume, less methodologically oriented, more broadly focused, and thus more suitable for undergraduate classes and a more general, less professional audience. Thus, The Supreme Court in the American Legal System.

The spotlight of The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited obviously remained on the Supreme Court, to the nearly complete exclusion of other courts. Moreover, as those familiar with the book well know, the book focused extensively on the Supreme Court's decision on the merits, carefully comparing, theoretically and empirically, legal, attitudinal, and rational choice models. Alternatively, although The Supreme Court in the American Legal System also centers on the Supreme Court, the in of the title deserves emphasis. In this volume, we extensively examine the lower courts, providing separate chapters on state courts, the U.S. District Courts, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Needless to say, we pay special attention to the relationship between these courts and the Supreme Court. We also pay extended attention to the legal process, with separate chapters on civil procedure, evidence, and criminal procedure.