The Shadow Court

Rescuing Democracy from the Supreme Court
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-0-520-43421-9
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 312 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 214 mm, Gewicht: 410 g

“An intriguing idea from a great legal mind.”—Washington Monthly

An innovative solution to the antidemocratic overreach of the Supreme Court, drawing on lessons from constitutional democracies around the world.For the foreseeable future, America is stuck with a Supreme Court compromised by a crisis of legitimacy. Beyond expanding presidential power, dismantling voting rights, and protecting other forms of antidemocratic government, the Court continues to usurp lawmaking power that should belong to the people and their elected representatives in a constitutional democracy. Julie C. Suk offers a novel solution to the problems plaguing the Supreme Court: a Shadow Court. All over the world, shadow governments act as watchdogs for representative democracies, and constitutional courts prevent slides into authoritarianism. Suk shows how Congress can build on these modern models and break the Supreme Court's monopoly on constitutional interpretation by creating a Shadow Court that would decide contested constitutional questions in the abstract before the Supreme Court could rule on them in a concrete case. Ambitious but pragmatic, The Shadow Court offers a hopeful and enduring solution for rescuing democracy in the United States.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Suk, Julie C.

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Staats- und Verfassungsrecht
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Zentralregierung
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Demokratie
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtsvergleichung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

ContentsIntroduction1. The Crisis of Democracy and the Supreme Court2. Democratic Institutions of Constitutional Lawmaking3. Legitimizing Features of the Shadow Court4. Shadowing Power to Build Power5. Nationwide Injunctions and Abstract Review6. Protecting Democracy After Antidemocratic RuleEpilogue: The Democracy DocketAcknowledgmentsNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Julie C. Suk is Leonard F. Manning Professor of Law at Fordham University and a Steven M. Polan Fellow in Constitutional Law and History at the Brennan Center for Justice. She is the author of After Misogyny: How the Law Fails Women and What to Do about It and We the Women: The Unstoppable Mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment.