Fields of Interest:

American Politics, Judicial Politics, Research Methods

Education: Ph.D., Ohio State University, 1985

Professor Pacelle received his Ph.D. in political science from the Ohio State University.  Before coming to UTK, he taught at Indiana University and the University of Missouri-St. Louis and was department chair at Georgia Southern University. His teaching and research interests are in the field of American politics with a focus on public law and the Supreme Court. Pacelle is the author of five books and several articles and book chapters. His coauthored book, Decision Making by the Modern Supreme Court, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2011. More recently, he is the author of The Supreme Court in a Separation of Powers System (2015). He is currently working on a book manuscript (with Barry Pyle) on the evolution of issues in the Supreme Court.

Research and Teaching Interests

American Politics, Public Law and Judicial Politics, Separation of Powers, Supreme Court. Honors American Government, Public Policy, Constitutional Law, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Criminal Procedure, Judicial Process, Research Methods.

Selected Publications

“The Complementary Use of Judicial Activism and Restraint in the United States Supreme Court” chapter 3 in Judicial Activism in Comparative Perspective edited Lori Hausegger and Raul Sanchez Urribarri. Oxford: Peter Lang Publishers, 2024

“The Solicitor General of the United States” chapter 3 Open Judicial Politics edited by Rorie Spill Solberg and Eric Waltenburg. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2024.

“Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh on Internet Platform Liability” chapter 14 in SCOTUS 2022: Major Decisions and Developments of the US Supreme Court edited Morgan Marietta and Howard Schweber. New York: Palgrave, 2024.

“Shurtleff v. City of Boston on Free Speech” chapter 8 in SCOTUS 2021: Major Decisions and Developments of the US Supreme Court edited Morgan Marietta. New York: Palgrave, 2023.

“Issue Emergence and Evolution in the US Supreme Court” (coauthored with Barry Pyle), chapter 6.1in Open Judicial Politics edited by Rorie Spill Solberg, Jennifer Segal Diasco, and Eric J. Waltenburg. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2020.

“Assessing the Influence of Amicus Curiae Briefs on the Roberts Court” (with John Scheb, Hemant Sharma, and David Scott), Social Science Quarterly 99 (December 2018): 1253-1266.

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