Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The U.S. Supreme Court regularly articulates policies of profound political and social consequence. Rarely, however, does the Court take a significant or active role in the broad dissemination of those policies to the mass public. Indeed, where spokespeople for the executive branch or members of Congress often appear publicly to make the case for a given policy or action, the Court simply delivers its opinion and then leaves it to others to communicate it (see, for example, Franklin and Kosaki 1995). As a result, the Court’s policies are extremely vulnerable to the framing effects of the media — no small matter, inasmuch as media frames have a significant bearing on the public’s opinion formation towards the Court’s policies (Clawson and Waltenburg 2003).