Topic
Supreme court
About: Supreme court is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 41858 publications have been published within this topic receiving 306787 citations. The topic is also known as: court of last resort & highest court of appeal.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe and explain the political constraints that limit structural reform of the Supreme Court, using the failure of Roosevelt's 1937 court-packing plan as a running example.
Abstract: This essay describes and explains the political constraints that limit structural reform of the Supreme Court, using the failure of Roosevelt's 1937 court-packing plan as a running example. The thesis is that movements for structural reform of the Court have a self-negating tendency. The very conditions that produce demand for structural reform of the Court also tend to produce counterforces that block reform.
156 citations
TL;DR: While the Supreme Court is reviewing the decisions by the Second and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals to reverse state bans on assisted suicide, there is a unique opportunity to engage the public in the debate over assisted suicide.
Abstract: While the Supreme Court is reviewing the decisions by the Second and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals to reverse state bans on assisted suicide, there is a unique opportunity to engage the public, h...
155 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors empirically examined the conditions under which judicial independence is and is not likely to be found and concluded that in times of congressional opposition to the Court, only under special conditions identified in the analysis will it retain its independence.
Abstract: Defining judicial independence as the ability of courts to make decisions in the short term without regard for the preferences of officeholders, this article empirically examines the conditions under which judicial independence is and is not likely to be found. Nine periods of intense congressional hostility to the Supreme Court are identified and Court reactions are chartered along a continuum from pure independence to total subservience. Examination of the historical record highlights five key factors related to independence and shows that judicial independence existed in only three of the periods. In the remaining six periods, the Court either refrained from hearing certain cases, issued opinions more in line with congressional preferences, or reversed itself. The article rejects the hypothesis of judicial independence, concluding that in times of congressional opposition to the Court, only under special conditions identified in the analysis will it retain its independence.
153 citations
TL;DR: For instance, the American National Election Study, a prominent source of the conclusion that people know little if anything about the U.S. Supreme Court, codes as incorrect the reply that William Rehnquist is (was) a justice on the U Supreme Court (which, of course, technically, he was not) as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Conventional wisdom holds that the American people are woefully ignorant about law and courts. In light of this putative ignorance, scholars and other commentators have questioned whether the public should play a role in the judicial process—for example, whether public preferences should matter for U.S. Supreme Court confirmation processes. Unfortunately, however, much of what we know—or think we know— about public knowledge of the Supreme Court is based upon flawed measures and procedures. So, for instance, the American National Election Study, a prominent source of the conclusion that people know little if anything about the U.S. Supreme Court, codes as incorrect the reply that William Rehnquist is (was) a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court; respondents, to be judged knowledgeable, must identify Rehnquist as the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (which, of course, technically, he was not). More generally, the use of open-ended recall questions leads to a serious and substantial underestimation of t...
152 citations