Special Issue: Constitutional Politics in a Conservative Era (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society)

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sdarticle_002.pdf......Page 3
List of Contributors......Page 4
Editorial board......Page 5
Understanding the impact and visibility of ideological change on the supreme court......Page 6
Introduction: Rights, majorities, and Warren Court hangovers......Page 7
Don’t Assume that When a Court Strikes Down a Law, it is Necessarily Thwarting the Will or Expectations of Majorities of the Population or of Elected Officials......Page 13
Do Remember that Elected Officials Have Numerous Available Weapons for Limiting the Impact of Judicial Rulings. Always Ask Why Such Weapons Were Not Utilized Before Concluding that Judges Successfully Thwarted the Collective Wishes of Elected Officials......Page 16
Don’t Let an Obsession with Judicial Review Lead to Overlooking Other Ways Judges Shape Policy, Influence Political Outcomes, and Register Shifts in Ideological Direction......Page 18
Don’t Try to Measure Ideological Shifts on the Court by Counting How Many Times the Justices Have Chosen to Identify One of Their Rulings as ‘‘Overruling’’ an Earlier Decision......Page 20
Do Not Assume that Ideological Shifts in the Broader Population can be Estimated or Matched to Ideological Shifts on the Court, Particularly During Times of Closely Contested Partisan Control in the Other Branches of Government......Page 26
Future directions of the court......Page 28
Notes......Page 33
References......Page 34
Introduction: An indifference thesis about commentary......Page 39
Hypotheses for locating ‘‘domination’’ of the judiciary......Page 43
Concepts of a ‘‘conservative’’ judiciary......Page 49
The benchmarks: A tangled political and judicial web......Page 51
Rapanos and ‘‘conservative domination of the judiciary’’......Page 60
Conclusion......Page 69
Notes......Page 70
References......Page 72
Popular constitutionalism: The new living constitutionalism......Page 76
The Turn to Popular Constitutionalism......Page 79
The Progressive Roots of Popular Constitutionalism......Page 83
Conservative Politics and Contemporary Constitutional Theory......Page 87
Judicial Conservatism and the Incongruities of Constitutional Development......Page 96
Legal Liberalism’s Break with the New Deal......Page 98
Conclusion: A Conservative Era?......Page 100
Notes......Page 102
References......Page 104
Political regimes and the future of the First Amendment......Page 109
The influence of political regimes......Page 112
Government Aid to Religious Institutions......Page 116
Access to Government Forums......Page 118
School Prayer......Page 120
Free Exercise......Page 121
The Rehnquist Court and the non-religion First Amendment cases......Page 122
Flag-Burning......Page 123
Sexual Speech on the Internet......Page 125
Commercial Speech......Page 128
The Deviant Cases Help the Regime......Page 130
The Deviant Cases Line up with Public Opinion......Page 131
The Outcomes Demonstrate the Weight of Precedent......Page 132
The Outcomes Reflect the Libertarian Strand within Conservatism......Page 134
The Outcomes Reflect the Efforts of Conservative Legal Groups......Page 135
The conservative First Amendment......Page 136
Notes......Page 139
References......Page 140
Introduction......Page 142
The confirmation process in historical perspective: Keeping nominees at a distance......Page 145
A new role for senators? Inviting the public into the confirmation process......Page 148
‘‘Packing the courts’’: Social conservatives adopt a new political strategy......Page 151
Senate hearings as ‘‘show business’’: The modern-day confirmation charade......Page 156
A public left behind: The confirmation process at the start of the 21st century......Page 165
Conclusion......Page 170
References......Page 171
Why Does a Moderate/Conservative Supreme Court in a Conservative Age Expand Gay Rights?: Lawrence v. Texas (2003) in Legal and Political Time......Page 173
Introduction......Page 174
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992) and Lawrence v. Texas (2003): Principled bi-directional Supreme Court decision making......Page 176
Lawrence v. Texas (2003)......Page 178
Fighting over the Legitimacy of Principled Bi-Directional Supreme Court Decision Making......Page 182
Rejection of Political Contestation as a Basis for Determining Individual Rights......Page 183
Expanding Gay Rights in a Conservative Political Age......Page 184
Historians and Political Scientists......Page 186
Cass Sunstein’s Theory of Judicial Minimalism......Page 191
The legitimacy of PBD: A defining fissure On and Off the Supreme Court......Page 197
PBD as a Motor for Social Change......Page 201
The Supreme Court and the Non-Waning of ‘‘Legal Time’’......Page 202
Conclusion......Page 204
Notes......Page 205
References......Page 214