Citizens, courts, and confirmations : positivity theory and the judgments of the American people / James L. Gibson and Gregory A. Caldeira.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gibson, James L., 1951-

Contributor:

Caldeira, Gregory A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Judges--Selection and appointment--United States.

Judges.

Public opinion--United States.

Public opinion.

United States. Supreme Court--Officials and employees--Selection and appointment.

United States.

Alito, Samuel A., Jr., 1950-.

Alito, Samuel A.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (195 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In recent years the American public has witnessed several hard-fought battles over nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court. In these heated confirmation fights, candidates' legal and political philosophies have been subject to intense scrutiny and debate. Citizens, Courts, and Confirmations examines one such fight--over the nomination of Samuel Alito--to discover how and why people formed opinions about the nominee, and to determine how the confirmation process shaped perceptions of the Supreme Court's legitimacy. Drawing on a nationally representative survey, James Gibson and Gregory Caldeira use the Alito confirmation fight as a window into public attitudes about the nation's highest court. They find that Americans know far more about the Supreme Court than many realize, that the Court enjoys a great deal of legitimacy among the American people, that attitudes toward the Court as an institution generally do not suffer from partisan or ideological polarization, and that public knowledge enhances the legitimacy accorded the Court. Yet the authors demonstrate that partisan and ideological infighting that treats the Court as just another political institution undermines the considerable public support the institution currently enjoys, and that politicized confirmation battles pose a grave threat to the basic legitimacy of the Supreme Court.

Contents:

Introduction : the public and supreme court nominations

Knowing about courts

The popular legitimacy of the United States Supreme Court

Institutional loyalty, positivity bias, and the Alito nomination

A dynamic test of the positivity bias hypothesis

Concluding thoughts, theory, and policy.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [163]-174) and index.

ISBN:

9786612820953

9781282820951

1282820958

9781400830602

1400830605

OCLC:

670429817