Presidential Challenges to Judicial Supremacy and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning

Abstract:     
Political challenges to the judiciary are usually regarded as a threat to the Constitution and judicial independence broadly. This need not be the case, however, and such assumptions may misinterpret American political history and underestimate American constitutionalism. This article reexamines historical presidential challenges to judicial supremacy in constitutional interpretation. Rather than being unprincipled attacks on judicial independence or rejections of constitutional values, such challenges are better understood as contextually specific efforts to reconsider the meaning and future of American constitutional traditions and efforts to shift the locus of constitutional debate into a more democratic arena.

Note: This is a description of the paper and is not the actual abstract.

Keywords: judicial supremacy, judicial independence, presidency, constitutional interpretation, departmentalism

JEL Classifications: K00, K40, K19

Accepted Paper Series