The Limits of Judicial Independence

356 Pages·2012·2.314 MB·English

by  Tom S. Clark

TheLimitsofJudicialIndependence
This book investigates the causes and consequences of congressional
attacks on the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the extent of pub-
lic support for judicial independence constitutes the practical limit of
judicial independence. First, the book presents a historical overview
ofCourt-curbingproposalsinCongress.Then,buildingoninterviews
with Supreme Court justices, members of Congress, and judicial and
legislativestaffers,aswellasexistingresearch,thebooktheorizesthat
congressional attacks are driven by public discontent with the Court.
From this theoretical model, predictions are derived about the deci-
sion to engage in Court-curbing and judicial responsiveness to Court-
curbingactivityinCongress.TheLimitsofJudicialIndependencedraws
on illustrative archival evidence, systematic analysis of an original
datasetofCourt-curbingproposalsintroducedinCongressfrom1877
onward,andjudicialdecisions.ThisevidencedemonstratesthatCourt-
curbingisdrivenprimarilybypublicoppositiontotheCourt,andthat
theCourtrespondstothoseproposalsbyengaginginself-restraintand
moderatingitsdecisions.
TomS.ClarkisAssistantProfessorofPoliticalScienceatEmoryUni-
versity.HisresearchinterestsincludeAmericanjudicialinstitutionsand
theinteractionbetweencourtsandotherpoliticalactors.Hisresearch
hasbeenpublishedinnumerousjournals,includingtheAmericanJour-
nal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, the Journal of Law,
Economics & Organization, and theJournal of Theoretical Politics .
His dissertation, on which this book is based, was awarded the 2009
CarlAlbertAwardfortheBestDissertationfromtheLegislativeStudies
Section of the American Political Science Association. Clark received
his Ph.D. and M.A. from Princeton University and B.A. from Rutgers
University.

PoliticalEconomyofInstitutionsandDecisions
SeriesEditors
StephenAnsolabehere,HarvardUniversity
JeffryFrieden,HarvardUniversity
FoundingEditors
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DouglassC.North,WashingtonUniversityofSt.Louis
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JapanandtheUnitedStates:AnInstitutionalistApproach
SerieslistcontinuesfollowingtheIndex.

The Limits of Judicial Independence
TOM S. CLARK
EmoryUniversity
cambridgeuniversitypress
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CambridgeUniversityPress
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9780521135054
(cid:2)C TomS.Clark2011
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
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permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2011
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationdata
Clark,ThomasS.,1980–
Thelimitsofjudicialindependence/TomS.Clark.
p. cm.–(Politicaleconomyofinstitutionsanddecisions)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-0-521-19488-4(hardback)–isbn978-0-521-13505-4(pbk.)
1.Judicialindependence–UnitedStates. 2.UnitedStates.Supreme
Court–Publicopinion. 3.Judgments–UnitedStates–Publicopinion.
4.UnitedStates.SupremeCourt–History. I.Title. II.Series.
kf8775.c58 2010
347.73(cid:3)26–dc22 2010012780
isbn978-0-521-19488-4Hardback
isbn978-0-521-13505-4Paperback
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For Leigh Anne

Contents
ListofTables pagexi
ListofFigures xiii
Acknowledgments xv
1 Introduction 1
2 APoliticalHistoryofCourt-Curbing 25
3 ConditionalSelf-Restraint 62
4 Court-CurbingandtheElectoralConnection 122
5 PublicSupportandJudicialReview 159
6 IdeologicalImplicationsofCourt-Curbing 207
7 TheLimitsofJudicialIndependence 255
AppendixA.EliteInterviewMethodology 271
AppendixB.Court-CurbingBills,1877–2008 276
Bibliography 299
Index 313
ix