A Supreme Court unlike any other: the deepening divide between the justices and the people

Preface: democracy in court? : presidents and justices

The Supreme Court's democracy gap and the erosion of legitimacy

Part I. Constructing a historically distinct court : how the conservative quest for judicial success isolated the justices from majoritarian democracy. Numerical minority justices as a conservative majority; An electoral-confirmation connection and the historical rarity of a contested justice; How a resurgent Senate tamed the judicial desires of electorally dominant presidents; Polarized politics and the Court's legitimacy paradox

Part II. Searching for wizards of the law : how the rise of the supreme elite further distanced the Court from the American people. How the redefinition of quality created a cookie-cutter court; Choosing right : how conservative efforts to eliminate ideological drift stifled Republican presidential choice; Democratic presidents and the avoidance of confirmation conflict; How the selection of unknown voices with different audiences transformed the Court into a judicial aristocracy

Part III. Legitimacy on the campaign trail : can electoral success by judicially focused candidates reduce the Court's democracy gap? The Court issue and the presidential election of 2016; The "Kavanaugh effect" and the 2018 Senate elections; The never-ending promise of a conservative court and the 2020 presidential election

Concluding section: Confronting detours and dead ends : liberal resistance and frustration in the age of conservative dominance on the Court. How a numerical minority rules the law and prevents progressive political change; Reducing the democracy gap at the coalface of constitutional politics.