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The Supreme Court and the US Presidential Election of 2000: Wounds, Self-Inflicted or Otherwise?

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  • GIBSON, JAMES L.
  • CALDEIRA, GREGORY A.
  • SPENCE, LESTER KENYATTA

Abstract

The conventional wisdom about the US Supreme Court and the 2000 presidential election is that the Court wounded itself by participating in such a partisan dispute. By ‘wounded’ people mean that the institution lost some of its legitimacy. Evidence from our survey, conducted in early 2001, suggests little if any diminution of the Court’s legitimacy in the aftermath of Bush v. Gore, even among African Americans. We observe a relationship between evaluations of the opinion and institutional legitimacy, but the bulk of the causality seems to flow from loyalty to evaluations of the case, not vice versa. We argue that legitimacy frames perceptions of the Court opinion. Furthermore, increased awareness of the activities of the Court tends to reinforce legitimacy by exposing people to the powerful symbols of law. In 2000, legitimacy did indeed seem to provide a reservoir of good will that allowed the Court to weather the storm created by its involvement in Florida’s presidential election.

Suggested Citation

  • Gibson, James L. & Caldeira, Gregory A. & Spence, Lester Kenyatta, 2003. "The Supreme Court and the US Presidential Election of 2000: Wounds, Self-Inflicted or Otherwise?," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(4), pages 535-556, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:33:y:2003:i:04:p:535-556_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Maor Zeev‐Wolf & Avital Mentovich, 2022. "The influence of the legislative and judicial branches on moral judgment and norm perception with the special case of judicial intervention," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), pages 1211-1232, October.
    2. Kayla S. Canelo, 2022. "Citations to Interest Groups and Acceptance of Supreme Court Decisions," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 189-222, March.
    3. Ozili, Peterson K, 2020. "Bank loan loss provisioning during election years: cross-country evidence," MPRA Paper 96639, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Ugochukwu Basil, 2011. "The Pathology of Judicialization: Politics, Corruption and the Courts in Nigeria," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 4(3), pages 59-87, September.
    5. James L. Gibson & Gregory A. Caldeira, 2009. "Confirmation Politics and The Legitimacy of the U.S. Supreme Court: Institutional Loyalty, Positivity Bias, and the Alito Nomination," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(1), pages 139-155, January.
    6. James R. Rogers & Joseph Daniel Ura, 2020. "A majoritarian basis for judicial countermajoritarianism," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 32(3), pages 435-459, July.

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