Description
Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive examination of Black Americans
Trade Review"[T]his book should be of interest to scholars and students of the Court, public opinion, and American politics more broadly. Clawson and Waltenburg present a well researched book for scholars and students who wish to know about interactions between the Court and African Americans, the effect of decisions on public opinion, and understand the dynamics of diffuse support for the Court."
—The Journal of Politics
"One of the book's many strengths is its multidimensional approach to answering this core question: Why do African-Americans view the Court, and thus the U.S. regime, as legitimate? The authors provide a cogent, compact summary of Civil Rights history and how blacks' innovative public-interest-law strategy brought litigation to the federal courts.... [The] book's experimental, archival and survey data provides a more nuanced portrait of black attitudes toward the Supreme Court."
—Perspectives on Politics
Table of ContentsPreface
1. Legitimacy and American Democracy
2. Blacks, Civil Rights, and the Supreme Court
3. Establishing the Supreme Court's Legitimizing Capacity
4. Different Presses, Different Frames: Black and Mainstream Press Coverage of a Supreme Court Decision
5. Media Framing and the Supreme Court's Legitimizing Capacity
6. The Supreme Court's Legitimizing Capacity among African Americans: Support for Capital Punsihment and Affirmative Action
7. The Casual Relationship between Public Opinion toward the Court and Its Policies: The University of Michigan Affirmative Action Cases
8. Conclusion
Appendix A: Stimulus for Legitimacy Experiment
Appendix B: List of Black Newspapers
Appendix C: Stimulus for Media Framing Experiment
Appendix D: Question Wording for Media Framing Experiment
Appendix E: Blacks and the U.S. Supreme Court Survey
Notes
Reference
Index
