American Politicians Confront the Court

Politicians have long questioned, or even been openly hostile to, the legitimacy of judicial authority, but that authority seems to have become more secure over time. What explains the recurrence of hostilities and yet the security of judicial power? Addressing this question anew, Stephen Engel points to the gradual acceptance of dissenting views of the Constitution, that is, the legitimacy and loyalty of stable opposition. Politicians changing perception of the threat posed by opposition influenced how manipulations of judicial authority took shape. Engels book brings our understanding of these manipulations into line with other developments, such as the establishment of political parties, the acceptance of loyal opposition, the development of different modes of constitutional interpretation and the emergence of rights-based pluralism.

Spis treści:
1. Introduction, had Americans stopped understanding about the three branches?
Part I. Political Development and Elected-Branch Relations with the Judiciary
2. Beyond the countermajoritarian difficulty
3. A developmental theory of political manipulation of judicial power
Part II. Hostility to Judicial Authority and the Political Idiom of Civic Republicanism
4. In the cause of unified governance, undermining the court in an anti-party age
5. Party against partisanship, single-party constitutionalism and the quest for regime unity
6. As party exigencies require, republicanism, loyal opposition, and the emerging legitimacy of multiple constitutional visions
Part III. Harnessing Judicial Power and the Political Idiom of Liberal Pluralism
7. Clashing progressive solutions to the problem of judicial authority
8. In a polity fully-developed for harnessing (I), living constitutionalism and the policization of judicial appointment
9. In a polity fully-developed for harnessing (II), a conservative insurgency and a self-styled majoritarian court responds
10. Conclusion, on the return of opposition illegitimacy and the prospects for new development.