Public Opinion and the Dynamics of Supreme Court Institutionalization.

Scholars have long seen much merit in Justice Frankfurter's observation that the Supreme Court's authority "ultimately rests on sustained public confidence in its moral sanction"-investing tremendous resources in investigating the dynamics of public confidence in the judiciary. This paper explicitly investigates the link between public support for the Supreme Court and the institutionalization of the Court, understood as the Court's ability to exercise its institutional prerogatives. We find that there is a positive dynamic relationship between the public's approval of the judiciary and the Court. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]