Reversal of Major Decisions of U.S. Supreme Court: Perspective of Constitutional Politics and Social Change

FAIN: FB-13064-77

John B. Taylor
Washington College (Chestertown, MD 21620-1197)

To study the phenomenon of legislative reversals of major decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. Specific elements of study will be (1) the relation of reversals to more general campaigns for reform; (2) the relation of Presidential and Congressional activity to reversals; (3) the role of interest group pressure and legal advocacy (Litigation as lobbying) in securing reversals; (4) the importance for reversals of changes in the membership of the Court; (5) the impact of individual justices as revealed through judicial biography, and (6) the relation of reversals to internal dynamics of the Court as revealed by bloc analysis.