Role of the supreme court in American politics the least dangerous branch?

Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-177) and index.

Introduction: A Five-Week Election Night Ends Up in the Supreme Court -- 1. The Supreme Court: Law or Politics? Defining the Dilemma. Making Public Policy: Does the Supreme Court Take Part? The Supreme Court. Unraveling the Dilemma. Statutory Construction: Changing the Meaning. Judicial Review. Overturning Precedent. Interpreting and Revising Constitutional Provisions. Evaluating the Role of the Supreme Court -- 2. The Historical Dimension of the Dilemma. The Marshall Court (1801-1835). The Taney Court (1836-1864). Substantive Due Process. The Preferred Position Doctrine: Selective Judicial Activism. The Burger and Rehnquist Courts: Return to Restraint? -- 3. The Democratic Dimension of the Dilemma: Unelected Policymaking. Democratic Theory and the Supreme Court. Policymaking Against Majority Will. Review Compatible with Democratic Values. Deliberately Undemocratic. Are the Elected Branches Democratic? The Practical Realities of American Politics.

A Pluralist Role for the Supreme Court. Rights and Liberties: The Province of the Supreme Court. Democratic Concerns Revisited -- 4. The Institutional Dimension of the Dilemma: Constitutional and Self-Imposed Limitations. The Limits of the Judicial Branch. Jurisdiction. Justiciability. Checks and Balances. Exposing the Supreme Court. The Power and Potential of the Supreme Court -- 5. The Judicial Capacity Dimension of the Dilemma: Does the Supreme Court Have the Ability to Make Policy? The Supreme Court: Powerful Enough or Too Weak? The Supreme Court's Ability to Make Policy. Assessing Judicial Capacity. The Indictment Against the Judiciary. Viable Alternatives to the Judiciary. The Case for Relative Capacity. Is Capacity A Barrier? -- 6. The Individual Dimension of the Dilemma: The Bases for Decisions. The Dilemma for the Individual Justice. Legal Factors in Decisionmaking. Problems with the Legal Factors. Extralegal Factors in Decisionmaking.

Relying on the Constitution: Legal or Extralegal? Reconciling the Two Perspectives -- 7. Toward Resolving the Dilemma: A Return to the Recent Past. The Mysterious Branch of Government Nobody Knows. Recognizing the Constraints and Potential. Designing a Role for the Supreme Court. Protecting the Court's Legitimacy.