Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 July 2025
In this chapter, we examine the effects of judicial review across citizens. We find that, when courts enjoy high levels of judicial independence, their rulings’ efficacy is amplified among citizens who have a strong regard for the rule of law; when citizens have low levels of support for the rule of law, the effect of a court’s ruling is muted. For courts that lack judicial independence, even those citizens who hold the rule of law in the highest regard are unaffected by a court’s determination that that an executive’s behavior is unconstitutional. Additionally, we explain how the efficacy of judicial review varies based on the public’s approval of the executive whose policy the court reviews. Notably, we find that the public opinion constraint on executives comes from their supporters, not their opponents. These findings point to an important implication: political sympathy for the executive may not necessarily be the Achilles heel of judicial efficacy it is often portrayed to be.
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