The Supreme Court and Public Opinion

3 units

The Supreme Court is the least representative branch of the federal government and also the most insulated from public opinion. Even so, it enjoys the highest levels of public approval, with public support that far outpaces support for Congress or the Presidency. This course will explore this tension and will investigate why and how the public opinion influences the Court and vice versa. Throughout, we will interrogate the basic presumption that the Court is, and ought to be, insulated from the public. We will also engage these questions through the vantage point of key Supreme Court caselaw involving civil rights and reproductive freedoms.