All the President's Justices? The Impact of Presidential Copartisanship on Supreme Court Job Approval
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6231897 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Brandon L Bartels (0000-0002-5144-4758, George Washington University), Eric Kramon (0000-0001-8299-4018, George Washington University) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 66 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 171-186 |
| Publication date | 2022-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/ajps.12617 |
| OpenAlex | W3195331875 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 17 |
| References cited | 39 |
Supreme Court job approval is sensibly connected to its decisions, particularly salient ones. We fill a gap in the literature by theorizing—via a presidential appointment mechanism—how partisan alignment with the incumbent president (presidential copartisanship) influences Supreme Court job approval. Analysis of data from 1986 to 2019 (supplemented by longer‐term confidence data) shows that a president's copartisans are significantly more approving of the Court than outpartisans. Analysis of the American Panel Survey surrounding high‐salience events during the transition from Obama to Trump shows that Republicans, who significantly increase in Court approval following Trump's election victory, are anticipatory of Trump's prospects of changing the Court. Democrats, whose approval significantly declines only after Justice Gorsuch's confirmation, are not anticipatory but reactive to the president's confirmed appointee. Our findings generate new evidence of how the president structures public opinion toward the Court, which has important implications for judicial independence and legitimacy
Concurring opinion · Court of record · Judicial Independence · Legitimacy · Majority opinion · Original jurisdiction · Political science · Politics · Presidential election · Presidential system · Salience (neuroscience · Supreme court · Victory · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems · Legal and Constitutional Studies · Psychology
Partisan Approval for the Supreme Court After Dobbs
Depictions of Partisan Bias at Oral Argument and Public Evaluations of the U.S. Supreme Court
Lifetime Appointments, Lasting Reactions
Experiential Spillover in Public Views of Police and Courts
From Politics to the Bench
Institutional Structures and Judicial Legitimacy
The Pivotal and Distributive Politics of Senate‐Confirmed Appointee Vacancies
Public Approval of the Supreme Court and Its Implications for Legitimacy
Judicial Philosophy and the Public’s Support for Courts
The Racialization of the United States Supreme Court? Examining Changes in Public Opinion Toward SCOTUS Over Time
Consequences of Corruption for Political System Support
The Soldier in the State
Losing legitimacy
Trust in the Judiciary and Partisan Reactions to Judicial Checks
The Rule of Law in Red and Blue
The Gender Gap in Supreme Court Legitimacy
Your Honor’s Misdeeds
Curbing the Court
Citizens, Courts, and Confirmations
Tides of Consent
Public Reaction to Supreme Court Decisions
A systems analysis of political life
The Legitimacy of the US Supreme Court
Cognitive Heuristics, Inter-Institutional Politics, and Public Perceptions of Insulated Institutions
Presidential Rhetoric and U.S. Supreme Court Rulings
Presidential Success in Supreme Court Appointments
Legislative-Judicial Relations
Does the Leader's Ethnicity Matter? Ethnic Favoritism, Education, and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa
Judging the “Vapid and Hollow Charade
Is the U.S. Supreme Court's Legitimacy Grounded in Performance Satisfaction and Ideology
The Dynamics of Public Support for the Supreme Court
Political Justice
The Political Party Basis of Attitudes Toward the Supreme Court
Do Attitudes Toward Specific Supreme Court Decisions Matter? The Impact of Webster and Texas v. Johnson on Public Confidence in the Supreme Court
Someone like Me
How Political Signals Affect Public Support for Judicial Nominations
Ideology and Specific Support for the Supreme Court
Buyer Beware? Presidential Success through Supreme Court Appointments
Snap Judgment
A Competing Risks Model of Supreme Court Vacancies, 1789–1992
Partisans in Robes
The Theory of Presidential Association
On the Ideological Foundations of Supreme Court Legitimacy in the American Public
Ideological Divergence and Public Support for the Supreme Court
Measuring Attitudes toward the United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court and the US Presidential Election of 2000
How Political Contestation Over Judicial Nominations Polarizes Americans’ Attitudes Toward the Supreme Court
Policy, Politics, and Public Attitudes Toward the Supreme Court
Source Cues and Public Support for the Supreme Court
Does Public Support for Judicial Power Depend on Who is in Political Power? Testing a Theory of Partisan Alignment in Africa
| Unique citing works | 17 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,25 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 17 |