What accounts for the disconnect between the high end of elite progressive opinion and its other stratums? Why hasn’t there been a greater rejection of judicial review, or a more sustained and broad effort to discredit the courts? To be sure, there have been (and will continue to be) efforts to discredit particular opinions. For instance, many progressives denounced Citizens United v. FEC, with one doing so at the State of the Union. Yet there has been no persistent, general campaign to tear down the courts. Simple reasons account for the failure of the vanguard to convince the rearguard to humble the courts. Habit, identification, preference satisfaction, and the fact that courts remain the most meaningful constitutional game in town all contribute to the continued progressive preference for the courts as the locus of constitutional decision making.

Citation
Saikrishna Prakash, The Causes of Progressive Stagnation, 72 Ohio State Law Journal, 1277–1280 (2011).
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