Confidence in the US Supreme Court is declining, and that puts its decisions at risk from Congress

Recent years have seen a marked decline in public support for major US political institutions, and the Supreme Court has not been immune from this trend. Michael J. Nelson and Alicia Uribe-McGuire write that this falling support could threaten the nation's highest court, as legislators may have less of an electoral penalty from voters if they attack the Court. Studying Congressional lawmaking, they find that Congress is more than twice as likely to overturn a Supreme Court decision when public support for the Court is at its nadir compared to its highest level.