Navigating Separation of Powers: The Supreme Court and Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association

How does the Supreme Court make its decision? Analysts typically point to three different models: the legal, attitudinal, and strategic models. While civil rights issues are very salient and may be the subject of the litmus tests for presidents appointing justices, the issues are bound to attract the attention of Congress and interest groups. How does this constrain the Court? We examine the civil rights cases decided by the Supreme Court since Brown v. Board of Education and pay attention to the role of precedent, issue evolution, the elected branches, and the solicitor general. How do these forces influence the Court? Does the nature of the influence change if the case is constitutional v. statutory?