The Supreme Court: Court of Law or Court of Politics?

Jeb Barnes is Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern California, studying the intersection between law, politics and public policy.

After graduating from the University of Chicago Law School and clerking for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Dr. Barnes practiced as a commercial litigator in Boston and San Francisco. In 1994, he left the practice of law to pursue a doctorate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Barnes joined the USC faculty in 2001, where he teaches classes in law, American politics and public policy. His mixed-method research has looked at bias in media coverage of litigation, lawyers’ ethical duties to confront misleading press accounts of the legal system and how the filing of lawsuits influences attitudes toward claimants and their underlying claims.

He has published extensively on topics ranging from the asbestos crisis and litigation reform to disability rights and research methods. Recent articles are titled “Untangling the Concept of Adversarial Legalism,” and “The Politics of Litigation,” and " Conservative Supreme Court justices disagree about how to read the law".