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Backlash and Legitimation: Macro Political Responses to Supreme Court Decisions

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  • Joseph Daniel Ura

Abstract

This article is a first attempt to develop and assess the competing predictions of the thermostatic model of public opinion and legitimation theory for the responses of public mood to Supreme Court decisions. While the thermostatic model predicts a negative relationship between the ideological direction of Supreme Court decisions and changes in public mood, legitimation theory predicts that changes in mood should be positively associated with the ideological content of the Court's actions. I assess these rival expectations by modeling the dynamic relationship between mood and cumulative judicial liberalism. The model estimates indicate a complex interaction between the Court and the mass public characterized by short‐term backlash against Supreme Court decisions in mood followed by long‐run movement toward the ideological positions taken by the Court. The results emphasize the legitimacy of the Court in American politics and point to a unique role for the Court in shaping public opinion.

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  • Joseph Daniel Ura, 2014. "Backlash and Legitimation: Macro Political Responses to Supreme Court Decisions," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(1), pages 110-126, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:58:y:2014:i:1:p:110-126
    DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12048
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    Cited by:

    1. Maor Zeev‐Wolf & Avital Mentovich, 2022. "The influence of the legislative and judicial branches on moral judgment and norm perception with the special case of judicial intervention," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), pages 1211-1232, October.
    2. Agustin Casas & Federico Curci & Antoni-Italo De Moragas, 2022. "Checks and Balances and Nation Building: The Spanish Constitutional Court and Catalonia," Working Papers 189, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    3. Chen, Daniel L. & Levonyan, Vardges & Yeh, Susan, 2016. "Policies Affect Preferences: Evidence from Random Variation in Abortion Jurisprudence," IAST Working Papers 16-58, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    4. Matthew E.K. Hall, 2017. "Macro Implementation: Testing the Causal Paths from U.S. Macro Policy to Federal Incarceration," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 61(2), pages 438-455, April.
    5. James R. Rogers & Joseph Daniel Ura, 2020. "A majoritarian basis for judicial countermajoritarianism," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 32(3), pages 435-459, July.
    6. Amer Ait Sidhoum & Teresa Serra, 2016. "Volatility Spillovers in the Spanish Food Marketing Chain: The Case of Tomato," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 45-63, January.
    7. Michael A. Zilis & Xander Borne, 2021. "Defying the Supreme Court: The Impact of Overt Resistance to Landmark Legal Rulings," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(2), pages 920-938, March.

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