Prof. Gerard J. Fitzpatrick specializes in American national politics, with a particular focus on Public Law. Besides the Politics Department’s introductory American Government course, his teaching repertoire includes courses on the Supreme Court, constitutional interpretation, and the judicial process; Congress and the presidency; and political parties and elections. He also teaches the Department’s “capstone” seminar on American politics, which in recent years has focused on such topics as the politics of the Supreme Court recruitment process and the lives and judicial philosophies of Supreme Court justices. His teaching interests inform his research and writing agenda. Accordingly, his published scholarship includes articles on the politics of selecting Supreme Court justices, the 2000 presidential (post)election battle in Florida, and various aspects of the First Amendment. He is currently studying the jurisprudence of the most recently appointed Supreme Court justices. When not immersed in the polemics of politics, Prof. Fitzpatrick enjoys the pleasures of “classic jazz” music from the 1920s and 1930s.