The Chief Justice versus the Iconoclast: Popular Constitutionalism and Support for Using “Sociological Gobbledygook” in Legal Decisions

• In Event: Public Support for the Judiciary

Brief Overview

Using two experiments, we show that those who support the doctrine of popular constitutionalism react positively to judges basing their decisions on social science and the doctrine of legal pragmatism while legal traditionalists react negatively.

Authors

• Benjamin Woodson, University of Missouri-Kansas City

• Christopher M. Parker, University of Rhode Island