The Role Of The Supreme Court In American Politics The Least Dangerous Branch?

When the Supreme Court's effectively decided the presidential election of 2000, it decision illustrated a classic question in American politics: what is the appropriate role for the Supreme Court? The dilemma is between judicial activism, the Court's willingness to make significant changes in public policy, and judicial restraint, the Court's willi

Introduction: A Five-Week Election Night Ends Up in the Supreme Court -- The Supreme Court: Law or Politics? -- The Historical Dimension of the Dilemma -- The Democratic Dimension of the Dilemma: Unelected Policymaking -- The Institutional Dimension of the Dilemma: Constitutional and Self-Imposed Limitations -- The Judicial Capacity Dimension of the Dilemma: Does the Supreme Court Have the Ability to Make Policy? -- The Individual Dimension of the Dilemma: The Bases for Decisions -- Toward Resolving the Dilemma: A Return to the Recent Past

Richard L. Pacelle, Jr. is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is the recipient of the 2000 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2000-01 Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching. Professor Pacelle is the author of The Transformation of the Supreme Court's Agenda: From the New Deal to the Reagan Administration and Between Law and Politics: The Solicitor General and the Structuring of Race, Gender and Reproductive Rights Policy (forthcoming).