A Supreme Court Unlike Any Other

List of Figures and Tables Preface: Democracy in Court? Presidents and Justices Chapter 1: The Supreme Court’s Democracy Gap and the Erosion of Legitimacy Part I: Constructing a Historically Distinct Court: How the Conservative Quest for Judicial Success Isolated the Justices from Majoritarian Democracy Chapter 2: Numerical Minority Justices as a Conservative Majority Chapter 3: An Electoral-Confirmation Connection and the Historical Rarity of a Contested Justice Chapter 4: How a Resurgent Senate Tamed the Judicial Desires of Electorally Dominant Presidents Chapter 5: Polarized Politics and the Court’s Legitimacy Paradox Part II: Searching for Wizards of the Law: How the Rise of the Supreme Elite Further Distanced the Court from the American People Chapter 6: How the Redefinition of Quality Created a Cookie-Cutter Court Chapter 7: Choosing Right: How Conservative Efforts to Eliminate Ideological Drift Stifled Republican Presidential Choice Chapter 8: Democratic Presidents and the Avoidance of Confirmation Conflict Chapter 9: How the Selection of Unknown Voices with Different Audiences Transformed the Court into a Judicial Aristocracy Part III: Legitimacy on the Campaign Trail: Can Electoral Success by Judicially Focused Candidates Reduce the Court’s Democracy Gap? Chapter 10: The Court Issue and the Presidential Election of 2016 Chapter 11: The “Kavanaugh Effect” and the 2018 Senate Elections Chapter 12: The Never-Ending Promise of a Conservative Court and the 2020 Presidential Election Concluding Section: Confronting Detours and Dead Ends: Liberal Resistance and Frustration in the Age of Conservative Dominance on the Court Chapter 13: How a Numerical Minority Rules the Law and Prevents Progressive Political Change Chapter 14: Reducing the Democracy Gap at the Coalface of Constitutional Politics Notes References Index