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Confirmation Politics and the Legitimacy of the US Supreme Court: Institutional Loyalty, Positivity Bias, and the Alito Nomination

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Abstract:

In their analysis of the legitimacy of the United States Supreme Court in the aftermath of Bush v. Gore, Gibson, Caldeira, and Spence expound the theory of positivity bias. This theory asserts that pre-existing institutional loyalty shapes perceptions of and judgments about court decisions and events. In this paper, we use the theory of positivity bias to investigate the preferences of Americans regarding the confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito to a seat on the United States Supreme Court. More specifically, we derive from that theory the hypothesis that Alito confirmation preferences are shaped by pre-existing commitments to the Supreme Court. We demonstrate that those who have a high level of loyalty toward the Supreme Court rely much more heavily on criteria of judiciousness in forming their opinions on whether to confirm Alito. We conclude that institutional loyalty is an important frame through which Americans view the activity of their Supreme Court, and overcoming the presumptions built into that frame is essential if an opposition is to succeed in opposing a presidential nomination.

Most Common Document Word Stems:

court (159), confirm (121), alito (117), judg (94), suprem (93), polit (82), ideolog (71), institut (70), judici (67), loyalti (62), import (61), respond (60), frame (53), posit (52), expect (52), polici (50), american (49), prefer (47), issu (46), nomine (43), support (42),

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Institutional Legitimacy, Alito Confirmation, Public Opinion and the Supreme Court,Positivity Bias, Confirmation Politics
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Name: American Political Science Association
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MLA Citation:

Gibson, James. and Caldeira, Gregory. "Confirmation Politics and the Legitimacy of the US Supreme Court: Institutional Loyalty, Positivity Bias, and the Alito Nomination" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Marriott, Loews Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA, Aug 31, 2006 <Not Available>. 2009-05-24 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p152005_index.html>

APA Citation:

Gibson, J. L. and Caldeira, G. A. , 2006-08-31 "Confirmation Politics and the Legitimacy of the US Supreme Court: Institutional Loyalty, Positivity Bias, and the Alito Nomination" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Marriott, Loews Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA Online <APPLICATION/PDF>. 2009-05-24 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p152005_index.html

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: In their analysis of the legitimacy of the United States Supreme Court in the aftermath of Bush v. Gore, Gibson, Caldeira, and Spence expound the theory of positivity bias. This theory asserts that pre-existing institutional loyalty shapes perceptions of and judgments about court decisions and events. In this paper, we use the theory of positivity bias to investigate the preferences of Americans regarding the confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito to a seat on the United States Supreme Court. More specifically, we derive from that theory the hypothesis that Alito confirmation preferences are shaped by pre-existing commitments to the Supreme Court. We demonstrate that those who have a high level of loyalty toward the Supreme Court rely much more heavily on criteria of judiciousness in forming their opinions on whether to confirm Alito. We conclude that institutional loyalty is an important frame through which Americans view the activity of their Supreme Court, and overcoming the presumptions built into that frame is essential if an opposition is to succeed in opposing a presidential nomination.

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Document Type: application/pdf
Page count: 45
Word count: 13438
Text sample:
Confirmation Politics and the Legitimacy of the U.S. Supreme Court: Institutional Loyalty Positivity Bias and the Alito Nomination* James L. Gibson Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government Professor of African and African American Studies Department of Political Science Director Program on Citizenship and Democratic Values Weidenbaum Center on the Economy Government and Public Policy Washington University in St. Louis Campus Box 1063 219 Eliot Hall St. Louis MO 63130-4899 United States jgibson@wustl.edu Fellow Centre for Comparative and International Politics
.99 .88 R2 .32*** .53*** N 169 113 *** ** * Note: Standardized Regression Coefficients (รข): p < .001 p < .01 p < .05 When a single interactive equation is estimated for all respondents the results are: Y = 3.57 + (.74 * Role Expectations) - (.01 * Ideological Distance) - (.07 * Partisanship) - (.67 * Institutional Loyalty) + (.88 * Expectations-Loyalty Interaction) -43-


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