THE DYNAMICS OF PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR THE SUPREME-COURT

Past empirical studies of factors affecting public support For the Sup reme Court suggest: (1) the Supreme Court's decisions are more often c ongruent than incongruent with public opinion; (2) public response to decisions influences subsequent levels of institutional support; (3) n egative reactions more strongly affect institutional support than do p ositive reactions; and (4) support is subject to value-based regenerat ion due to a link between the Court and basic democratic values. Altho ugh a wealth of empirical studies underlies these propositions, such f indings appear inconsistent with the observed character of aggregate p ublic support for the Court-namely that levels of support tend to be h igh and that support Is quite stable over time. To explore this tensio n, we construct a dynamic model of public support for the Supreme Cour t, guided by our four empirically derived propositions. Model analysis and estimation demonstrates that an active and occasionally controver sial Supreme Court can maintain aggregate public support that is both high and stable.