Spring 2027

The Supreme Court as a Political Institution

A social science analysis of judicial decision-making theories and how law is made in a political context, focusing on the Supreme Court's operation in an interdependent political environment.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 David Olson

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2022: 3.70 GPA, 87.8% A/AB (n=49 letter grades); Fall 2023: 3.78 GPA, 91.5% A/AB (n=47 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.76 GPA, 96.1% A/AB (n=76 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Understand how the Supreme Court and justices operate in a political environment.

  • Explain how law is made in a political context.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
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AB
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing and (POLI SCI 104 or LEGAL ST/​POLI SCI 217)

POLISCI 414

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.76 GPA, 96.1% A/AB (n=76 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

DAVID OLSON is recorded teaching in Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 800

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2022: 3.70 GPA, 87.8% A/AB (n=49 letter grades); Fall 2023: 3.78 GPA, 91.5% A/AB (n=47 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.76 GPA, 96.1% A/AB (n=76 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Theories of judicial decision making
  • How law is made in a political context
  • Operation of the Supreme Court and justices in a political environment

Skills

  • Analyzing theories of judicial decision making
  • Understanding how the Supreme Court and justices operate in a political environment
  • Explaining how law is made in a political context

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1286 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
POLISCI 414 · Spring 2027

The Supreme Court as a Political Institution

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:778:023853",
    "course_id": "POLISCI 414",
    "course_uid": "course_29eb951a03aa2ca8342f3cf7",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "023853",
    "source_subject_id": "778",
    "title": "The Supreme Court as a Political Institution",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

No records available.

Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "39d50174477aad0f914c3f5a05c584df7b67f7e9ef9ed6a3ee3a78f8f39cc04c",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}