Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. List of Figures and Tables ix
4. Preface: Democracy in Court? Presidents and Justices xiii
5. 1. The Supreme Court’s Democracy Gap and the Erosion of Legitimacy 1
6. Part I: Constructing a Historically Distinct Court: How the Conservative Quest for Judicial Success Isolated the Justices from Majoritarian Democracy
7. 2. Numerical Minority Justices as a Conservative Majority 9
8. 3. An Electoral-Confirmation Connection and the Historical Rarity of a Contested Justice 21
9. 4. How a Resurgent Senate Tamed the Judicial Desires of Electorally Dominant Presidents 37
10. 5. Polarized Politics and the Court’s Legitimacy Paradox 63
11. Part II: Searching for Wizards of the Law: How the Rise of the Supreme Elite Further Distanced the Court from the American People
12. 6. How the Redefinition of Quality Created a Cookie-Cutter Court 99
13. 7. Choosing Right: How Conservative Efforts to Eliminate Ideological Drift Stifled Republican Presidential Choice 127
14. 8. Democratic Presidents and the Avoidance of Confirmation Conflict 150
15. 9. How the Selection of Unknown Voices with Different Audiences Transformed the Court into a Judicial Aristocracy 162
16. Part III: Legitimacy on the Campaign Trail: Can Electoral Success by Judicially Focused Candidates Reduce the Court’s Democracy Gap?
17. 10. The Court Issue and the Presidential Election of 2016 199
18. 11. The “Kavanaugh Effect” and the 2018 Senate Elections 223
19. 12. The Never-Ending Promise of a Conservative Court and the 2020 Presidential Election 235
20. Concluding Section: Confronting Detours and Dead Ends: Liberal Resistance and Frustration in the Age of Conservative Dominance on the Court
21. 13. How a Numerical Minority Rules the Law and Prevents Progressive Political Change 265
22. 14. Reducing the Democracy Gap at the Coalface of Constitutional Politics 285
23. Notes 293
24. References 339
25. Index 351