This study explores the relationship between American confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress's actions to strip its jurisdiction.
Background: Prior research connects public support for SCOTUS with both judicial independence and congressional efforts to curtail federal courts' power, suggesting these are linked primarily through workload concerns rather than ideological conflicts.
New Findings: Contrary to previous studies, our analysis reveals a positive correlation: higher public confidence in the Court actually predicts more jurisdiction-stripping legislation by Congress.
Implications: This counterintuitive result challenges existing assumptions about how court-public opinion dynamics influence legislative behavior and underscores the need for further investigation into these complex interactions.
