The limits of legitimacy : dissenting opinions, media coverage, and public responses to Supreme Court decisions / Michael A. Zilis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zilis, Michael A.

Contributor:

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), publisher.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Supreme Court.

United States.

United States. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Dissenting opinions--United States.

Dissenting opinions.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2015]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

When the U.S. Supreme Court announces a decision, reporters simplify and dramatize the complex legal issues by highlighting dissenting opinions and thus emphasizing conflict among the justices themselves. This often sensationalistic coverage fosters public controversy over specific rulings despite polls which show that Americans strongly believe in the Court's legitimacy as an institution. In The Limits of Legitimacy, Michael A. Zilis illuminates this link between case law and public opinion. Drawing on a diverse array of sources and methods, he employs case studies of eminent domain decisions, analysis of media reporting, an experiment to test how volunteers respond to media messages, and finally the natural experiment of the controversy over the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. Zilis finds that the media tends not to quote from majority opinions. However, the greater the division over a particular ruling among the justices themselves, the greater the likelihood that the media will criticize that ruling, characterize it as "activist," and employ inflammatory rhetoric. Hethen demonstrates that the media's portrayal of a decision, as much as the substance of the decision itself, influences citizens' reactions to and acceptance of it. This meticulously constructed study and its persuasively argued conclusion advance the understanding of the media, judicial politics, political institutions, and political behavior.

Contents:

Introduction

Institutional legitimacy, public reactions, and the backlash puzzle

The dissensus dynamics model : how the national news media cover Supreme Court decisions

"All private property is now vulnerable" : a case study of consensus, dissent, and media coverage

"I Respectfully dissent" : a test of dissensus dynamics in newspaper coverage

Dissent, debate, and depictions of decisions on cable news

In the court of public opinion

Cues volumes frames : elite competition and media effects after the Supreme Court rules

The Supreme Court on trial : public opinion and the Obamacare ruling

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-235) and index.

Description based on information from the publisher.

ISBN:

9780472072743

9780472052745

9780472121243

Publisher Number:

10.3998/mpub.7835032

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.