In recent years, the justices of the Supreme Court have ruled
definitively on such issues as abortion, school prayer, and
military tribunals in the war on terror. They decided one of
American history's most contested presidential elections. Yet for
all their power, the justices never face election, and hold their
offices for life. This combination of influence and apparent
unaccountability has led many to complain that there is something
illegitimate--even undemocratic--about judicial authority.
In "The Will of the People," Barry Friedman challenges that claim
by showing that the Court has always been subject to a higher
power: the American public. Judicial positions have been abolished,
the justices' jurisdiction has been stripped, the Court has been
packed, and unpopular decisions have been defied. For at least the
past sixty years, the justices have made sure that their decisions
do not stray too far from public opinion.
Friedman's pathbreaking account of the relationship between popular
opinion and the Supreme Court--from the Declaration of Independence
to the end of the Rehnquist Court in 2005--details how the American
people came to accept their most controversial institution and, in
so doing, shaped the meaning of the Constitution.
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