Courts expert Stephen Wasby to discuss U.S.Court of Appeals

Federal courts scholar Stephen L. Wasby will discuss “The Courts Nobody Knows: The U.S. Courts of Appeals,” in a talk scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23, in Ladd Hall, Room 307. The event is open to all.

The Supreme Court hears few cases; most cases end their path in the federal judicial system at the U.S. courts of appeals.  These are the courts about which we know little—how they operate and make decisions—even though how they deal with a case can affect what is available for the Supreme Court to decide.

Stephen Wasby is professor emeritus of political science at the University at Albany, State University of New York. His research continues a long-term project on decision-making in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is the author of a number of books, including The Supreme Court in the Federal Judicial System and Race Relations Litigation in an Age of Complexity, as well as articles in social science journals and law reviews.  

He received a B.A. from Antioch College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, where he was a National Defense Education Act Fellow. He held a Russell Sage Post-Doctoral Residency in Law and Social Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wasby was on the faculty at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale from 1966 through 1978 before moving to the University at Albany, where he taught for 20 years and is now professor emeritus of political science. He resides in Eastham, Mass.

He has been visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria (B.C.); and the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was Secretary of the Navy Fellow; and the University of Toronto, where he held the Bissell-Fulbright Chair in Canadian-American Relations at the University of Toronto. He was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (2006-2010).

He has taught a number of adult learning courses on the Supreme Court through local libraries on Cape Cod, and he continues to present guest lectures. In 1993, he was Skidmore's Fiscus Lecturer.

He served as director of the Law and Social Science Program at the National Science Foundation; has regularly taught a seminar on dissertation-proposal writing; and served as a member of the Institutional Review Board at the University at Albany.

Wasby’s research interests focus primarily on the federal courts, and he continues a long-term project on decision-making in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is the author of a number of books, including The Supreme Court in the Federal Judicial System and Race Relations Litigation in an Age of Complexity, as well as articles in social science journals and law reviews.

His talk is sponsored by Skidmore's Department of Government.