The focus of this article is on that segment of the litigation cycle in which lawyers\u27 attention to the Court\u27s rulings affects the cases they bring and how they bring them. To indicate the Court\u27s importance for litigating organizations\u27 existence and functioning, we first explore a set of cases involving the NAACP. These cases, involving the organization\u27s survival, show how the need for organizational maintenance affects an organization\u27s ability to litigate as it would like to do. Drawing on the law of procedure, we next examine cases affecting organizations\u27 ability to bring cases. Then we turn to see how Supreme Court rulings are thought to affect civil rights litigators\u27 choice of areas of law in which to bring cases. In keeping with our emphasis on how Supreme Court rulings can affect the dynamics of ongoing litigation, we give more extended attention to the Denver and first Detroit school desegregation cases, which allow us to recapitulate the variety of effects Supreme Court rulings have on continuing litigation and its dynamics
