Committed Majorities and Policy Change in the U.S. Supreme Court

This chapter focuses on doctrinal change. It details the doctrinal change across a broad field such as civil liberties, a type of change with an enormous potential impact. The Supreme Court is more likely than Congress to transcend incrementalism and undertake sudden and sharp policy changes. The chapter suggests that major policy change as arising when Congress or the Court has an effective majority of members who are committed to major change. It argues that a general scenario for policy change in the Supreme Court. Richard Nixon was among the critics of the Warren Court. By 1991 the only justice left from the Warren Court was Byron White, who offered only limited support for the civil liberties revolution of the 1960s. The break with the Warren Court was sharpest under Chief Justice William Rehnquist, when the Ronald Reagan and George Bush appointments were having their impact.