A TRANSFORMED TRIANGLE - COURT, CONGRESS, AND PRESIDENCY IN CIVIL-RIGHTS

The relative permeability of the three elements of a triangle-the Supr eme Court, Congress, and the president-to civil rights interest groups has varied over time. For almost two decades after World War II, the Supreme Court was the groups' preferred arena because Congress war; re sistant and presidents could thus do little or were hesitant to act. F or a brief time in the mid-1960s the president and Congress became sup portive of civil rights groups' claims while the Court also remained a ccessible. Starting in the fare 1960s executive and legislative suppor t for civil rights moderated, with presidential support declining sign ificantly in the 1980s. When the Supreme Court adopted that latter sta nce, Congress became the body through which to protect civil rights by reversing the Court's decisions. In this examination of the ''transfo rmed triangle'' in civil rights policymaking, we look at this change o ver time and at ''flip-flops'' in litigation as one administration cha nges the position espoused by its predecessor, and we also give some a ttention to the Supreme Court's response to congressional reversal of its rulings.