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.