The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution »

Barry Friedman holds the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Chair at the New York University School of Law. He is a constitutional lawyer and has litigated cases involving abortion, the death penalty, and free speech. He lives in New York City.

In recent years, the justices of the Supreme Court have ruled definitively on such issues as abortion, school prayer, and military tribunals in the war on terror. They decided one of American history’s most contested presidential elections. Yet for all their power, the justices never face election and hold their offices for life. This combination of influence and apparent unaccountability has led many to complain that there is something illegitimate—even undemocratic—about judicial authority.

In The Will of the People, Barry Friedman challenges that claim by showing that the Court has always been subject to a higher power: the American public. Judicial positions have been abolished, the justices’ jurisdiction has been stripped, the Court has been packed, and unpopular decisions have been defied. For at least the past sixty years, the justices have made sure that their decisions do not stray too far from public opinion.

Friedman’s pathbreaking account of the relationship between popular opinion and the Supreme Court—from the Declaration of Independence to the end of the Rehnquist court in 2005—details how the American people came to accept their most controversial institution and shaped the meaning of the Constitution.

The New York Times - Emily Bazelon

…[a] thought-provoking and authoritative history of the Supreme Court's relationship to popular opinion…Friedman's contribution to this discussion is the breadth and detail of his historical canvas, and it's a significant one.

Introduction 3

1 Conception 19

2 Independence 44

3 Defiance 72

4 Control 105

5 Constituency 137

6 Law v. Will 167

7 Acceptance 195

8 Limitations 237

9 Interpretation 280

10 Activism 323

Conclusion: What History Teaches 367

Notes 387

Acknowledgments 591

Index 595