What factors work to keep the US Supreme Court from deviating too far from public opinion?

Answer 1

• The Supreme Court receives and reads amicus curiae ("friend of the court") briefs expressing the legal opinions of individuals or groups with a special interest in a case, but no legal standing to participate officially.
  
  
• The Supreme Court also takes note of trends in state laws, constitutional amendments, and court decisions. While the US Supreme Court is the highest appellate Court in the nation, the justices do consider state court verdicts and the reasoning behind them.
  
  
• On rare occasions, State and lower federal courts refuse to adhere to the doctrine of stare decisis (let the decision stand), challenging precedents on legal, social and political grounds. This forces the US Supreme Court to revisit an issue that had already been decided in light of prevailing attitudes. In the past, the justices have acquiesced to the arguments of lower courts (but the lower courts get scolded for taking this approach).
  
  
• Supreme Court justices don't live in a vacuum. Simply participating in society, reading, being exposed to the media, as well as local and world events, helps keep them in touch with public concerns.

• According to a December 2008 New York Times article, "Influence on the Supreme Court Bench Could Be an Inside Job," the justices' law clerks, who are usually recent law school graduates, also influence the Court's direction:

"A new study in the DePaul Law Review claims to show that the political leanings of law clerks do influence the votes of Supreme Court justices.

"The study is based on information about political party affiliations collected from more than 500 former clerks, and on standard measures of judicial ideology.

""Over and above the influence of the justices' own policy preferences," the study concludes, "their clerks' policy preferences have an independent effect on their votes." Everything else being equal - the justice, the year, the case - the presence of additional liberal clerks in a given justice's chambers makes a liberal vote more likely, the study says, while the presence of additional conservative clerks pushes justices in the opposite direction."

Liptak, Adam. "Influence on the Supreme Court Bench Could Be an Inside Job." New York Times [New York City] 08 Dec. 2008, Politics, Washington sec. Print.

(See Related Links, below, to read the full article)

• Senators have a great deal of influence on the Court, both in terms of suggesting appropriate candidates, and in resisting confirmation of Supreme Court nominees whose ideology strays too far from the norm. President Reagan's failed nominee, Robert Bork, was rejected because of his ultraconservative beliefs.

For a perspective on how the Supreme Court is insulated from public opinion, see Related Questions, below.