We the People: The Role of Public Opinion in Supreme Court Decisions — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

We the People: The Role of Public Opinion in Supreme Court Decisions

Name: Rebecca Rankins
Major: Political Science and Criminal Justice
Hometown: Winnebago, IL
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas Powers
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Senior thesis

Abstract

The governing of the United States presents an uncompromisable role by the public; in American politics, the people govern themselves through representation. However, this role is not explicitly reflected in the Supreme Court, an unelected body. Although legal scholars argue justices make their decisions apart from consideration of public opinion, this thesis argues the opposite; Supreme Court decisions do have a relationship to public opinion. Further, this was the intention of the American founders. This study involves an analysis of some legal scholars and the American founders in order to investigate whether public opinion plays an indispensable role in judicial decision making. Following the analysis, this thesis seeks the correlation between judicial decisions and public opinion through a case study into historical Supreme Court decisions as well as the decisions of twenty-first century. This thesis suggests that judicial decisions should be considered in light of public opinion as the two ideas seem to have a relationship.

Poster file