Nixon's Court : his challenge to judicial liberalism and its political consequences / Kevin J. McMahon.
McMahon, Kevin J.
2011
KF8742 .M36 2011 (Mapit)
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Title Nixon's Court : his challenge to judicial liberalism and its political consequences / Kevin J. McMahon.
Author McMahon, Kevin J.
ISBN 9780226561196 alk. paper
0226561194 alk. paper
Imprint Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Language English
Description xiii, 343 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Call Number KF8742 .M36 2011
Dewey Decimal Classification 347.73/26
Summary In seeking to appeal to voters he would later call the "great silent majority," presidential candidate Richard Nixon laid down a challenge to the Warren Supreme Court in 1968, blaming it for the nation's recent crime wave and the unrest plaguing America's urban core. Inspired by his success in the election, Nixon maneuvered during the course of his presidency to alter the Court in hopes of making it work for him. Most analysts, however, have deemed Nixon's challenge to the judicial liberalism of the Warren Supreme Court a failure--"a counterrevolution that wasn't." Nixon's Court offers an alternative assessment. Kevin J. McMahon reveals a Nixon whose public rhetoric was more conservative than his administration's actions and whose policy toward the Court was more subtle than previously recognized. Viewing Nixon's judicial strategy as part political and part legal, McMahon argues that Nixon succeeded substantially on both counts. Many of the issues dear to social conservatives, such as abortion and school prayer, were not nearly as important to Nixon. Consequently, his nominations for the Supreme Court were chosen primarily to advance his "law and order: and school desegregation agendas--agendas the Court eventually endorse. But there were also political motivations to Nixon's approach: he wanted his judicial policy to be conservative enough to attract white southerners and northern white ethnics disgruntled with the Democratic Party but not so conservative as to drive away independents and moderates in his own party. In essence, then, he used his criticisms of the Court to speak to members of his "silent majority" in hopes of disrupting the long-dominant New Deal Democratic coalition. For McMahon, Nixon's judicial strategy succeeded not only in shaping the course of constitutional law in the areas he most desired but also in laying the foundation of an electoral alliance that would dominate presidential politics for a generation.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references (p. [317]-330) and index.
Record Appears in On-Campus Resources > Books
All Resources
Nixon's victory : oppositional presidents and the cycles of Supreme Court politics
The fight for the nomination : holding on for a second chance
Running to be "the One" : Nixon, divided democrats, and a chastened court
"Instead of listening to what we say . . . watch what we do" : electoral strategies, practical politics, and Nixon's judicial policy
Leading by following: Nixon, the Court, and the road to school desegregation
The Party of Lincoln's last stand? The GOP divide and the rejection of Nixon's southern strict constructionists (or, How Senate republicans made the court more liberal)
Fifty-three seconds that shaped the Court : Nixon's acceptable southerner and accidental ideologue (or, How liberals made the Court more conservative)
Fighting busing, crime, smut, and social disorder in America : strong rhetoric, selective action
Judicial decisions and the ballot box : Nixon's Court and the division of the democratic coalition
Evaluating the conservative counterrevolution through the Nixon/Rehnquist nexus.

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