TY - JOUR
T1 - The legitimacy of the US supreme court
T2 - Conventional wisdoms and recent challenges thereto
AU - Gibson, James L.
AU - Nelson, Michael J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2014 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved.
PY - 2014/11/3
Y1 - 2014/11/3
N2 - Research on the legitimacy of the US Supreme Court has blossomed of late, with scholars investigating many different hypotheses derived from legitimacy theory. As the theory has been pushed, a number of new controversies have emerged. Here, we identify four such debates: (a) whether the Court's legitimacy rests on satisfaction with its performance, (b) whether support for the Supreme Court reflects the polarization of politics in the contemporary United States, (c) whether the Court's legitimacy requires belief in the "myth of legality", and (d) whether judicial decisions can change public opinion. Our analysis of these issues generally concludes that the Supreme Court's legitimacy is reasonably secure, in part because individual rulings have little impact on support for the institution, in part because the Court has access to powerful and influential symbols of judicial authority, and in part because the current Supreme Court issues roughly equal numbers of conservative and liberal decisions.
AB - Research on the legitimacy of the US Supreme Court has blossomed of late, with scholars investigating many different hypotheses derived from legitimacy theory. As the theory has been pushed, a number of new controversies have emerged. Here, we identify four such debates: (a) whether the Court's legitimacy rests on satisfaction with its performance, (b) whether support for the Supreme Court reflects the polarization of politics in the contemporary United States, (c) whether the Court's legitimacy requires belief in the "myth of legality", and (d) whether judicial decisions can change public opinion. Our analysis of these issues generally concludes that the Supreme Court's legitimacy is reasonably secure, in part because individual rulings have little impact on support for the institution, in part because the Court has access to powerful and influential symbols of judicial authority, and in part because the current Supreme Court issues roughly equal numbers of conservative and liberal decisions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84908661935&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84908661935&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110413-030546
DO - 10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110413-030546
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84908661935
SN - 1550-3585
VL - 10
SP - 201
EP - 219
JO - Annual Review of Law and Social Science
JF - Annual Review of Law and Social Science
ER -