H. W. Perry specializes in constitutional and public law, the U.S. Supreme Court, constitutional interpretation, class actions, free speech, Supreme Court, the intersection of law and politics. His works in progress include a study of decision making in the U.S. Department of Justice. He has been a member of the faculty at Harvard University and Washington University in St. Louis. He is the director of the combined JD/Ph.D. program in the Department of Government and Law School.Professor Perry is best-known for his award-winning book Deciding to Decide: Agenda Setting in the United States Supreme Court (Harvard, 1991). He is also co-author of Civil Liberties and the Constitution (8th ed., forthcoming) and is currently working on a study of decision-making in the U.S. Department of Justice. His recent publications include "Access to Justice: Procedure, Polity, and Politics" (2010); "Civil Liberties and the Constitution: Cases and Commentaries" (2010); "Constitutional Faith, Constitutional Redemption, and Political Science: Can Faith and Political Science Coexist? [Symposium: Constitutional Redemption & Constitutional Faith]" (2012).

His book, "Deciding to Decide: Agenda-Setting in the United States Supreme Court" (Harvard, 1991), was awarded the Wilson Prize by the Board of Syndics of the Harvard Press and the C. Herman Pritchett Award from the American Political Science Association, as well as the 2007 Wadsworth Publishing Award, Awarded by the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association. He has co-authored Civil Liberties (8th ed.) and has written articles on the Supreme Court and the U.S. Attorneys.