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Acting When Elected Officials Won't: Federal Courts and Civil Rights Enforcement in U.S. Labor Unions, 1935–85

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  • FRYMER, PAUL

Abstract

Using the racial integration of national labor unions as a case study, I find that courts played an important and meaningfully autonomous role in integrating unions while elected officials largely failed to act. Courts, unlike elected officials, offered civil rights groups relatively easy access to the legal agenda. In response to thousands of cases in federal courts, judges rewrote key civil rights statutes, oversaw the implementation of their rulings, and used attorneys' fees and damage awards to impose significant financial costs on resistant unions. Court power was the product of multiple and historically contingent forces that involved the interaction of elected officials, civil rights activists, and the legal community. Elected officials delegated to the courts the power to enforce civil rights laws and tacitly endorsed procedural changes that augmented the courts' institutional powers and the legal community's professional influence. In response, judges and lawyers promoted and implemented a civil rights agenda far beyond the endorsement of elected officials. An historical–institutional approach helps explain how courts achieved and wielded independent power and the consequences of their action for civil rights, labor unions, and the American state.Thanks for very helpful comments go to Amy Bridges, Kerstin Carlson, Malcolm Feeley, Beth Garrett, Howard Gillman, Mark Graber, Jeff Haydu, David Karol, Ken Kersch, David Mayhew, Jim Morone, Shehzad Nadeem, Ruth O'Brien, Corey Robin, Pam Singh, John Skrentny, Mark Tushnet, Rick Valelly, Keith Whittington, Janelle Wong, the APSR reviewers, and Lee Sigelman. The University of California's Institute for Labor and Employment provided generous financial assistance.

Suggested Citation

  • Frymer, Paul, 2003. "Acting When Elected Officials Won't: Federal Courts and Civil Rights Enforcement in U.S. Labor Unions, 1935–85," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 97(3), pages 483-499, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:97:y:2003:i:03:p:483-499_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Quinn Mulroy & Shana Gadarian, 2018. "Off to the Courts? Or the Agency? Public Attitudes on Bureaucratic and Legal Approaches to Policy Enforcement," Laws, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-18, April.
    2. Fang, Albert H. & Guess, Andrew M. & Humphreys, Macartan, 2019. "Can the Government Deter Discrimination? Evidence from a Randomized Intervention in New York City," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 81(1), pages 127-141.
    3. Michael B. Jones, 2021. "Standing in the environment: new fashion grassroots and old fashion court advocacy in the time of Trump," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 11(2), pages 173-182, June.
    4. Rehder, Britta, 2007. "What Is Political about Jurisprudence? Courts, Politics and Political Science in Europe and the United States," MPIfG Discussion Paper 07/5, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

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