Courthouse Democracy and Minority Rights - Family Law - Law

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Courthouse Democracy and Minority Rights

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Provides a clear engaging background about recent same-sex marriage cases and theories of judicial impact, making it appropriate to assign in undergraduate courses.
Assesses the impact of state courts using cutting edge data analysis. The results are presented clearly, in ways that will be accessible to non-experts.
Focuses on same-sex marriage, one of the most important policy areas of the present day.
Includes numerous tables with statistics about the same-sex marriage cases, which readers will be able to incorporate into their own teaching and research.

In Courthouse Democracy and Minority Rights: Same-Sex Marriage in the States, Robert J. Hume examines how the democratization of state courts and state constitutional systems has influenced the capacity of judges to protect minority rights. Through an intensive examination of same-sex marriage policy, Hume shows that democratic innovations like judicial elections and initiative amendment procedures have conditioned the impact of judges on state marriage laws. Using a combination of original and publicly available data, Hume demonstrates that <"courthouse democracy>" has influenced the behavior of state judges, the reactions of the public to state court decisions, and the long-term policy consequences of these decisions, including the passage of state constitutional amendments. Hume concludes that judges will be capable of producing meaningful social change-and protecting minority rights-only when they have the institutional resources that they need to stand against popular opinion.

Readership: Scholars and students of judicial impact, public policy, state politics, and LGBT issues.

Preface
Part One: Introduction
Chapter 1: Promises, Promises
Chapter 2: Understanding the Impact of State Supreme Courts
Part Two: The Legal Context
Chapter 3: Early Same-Sex Marriage Decisions
Chapter 4: Massachusetts and Beyond
Part Three: An Analysis of State Judicial Impact
Chapter 5: Policy Initiation: The Diffusion of Same-Sex Marriage
Cases Across the States
Chapter 6: Policy Legitimation: Evaluating the Capacity of State
Courts to Change Public Opinion
Chapter 7: Policy Endurance: The Enactment of State Constitutional
Amendments Prohibiting Same-Sex Marriage
Chapter 8: The Promise of State Courts
Works Cited

Robert J. Hume, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Fordham University, USA

Robert J. Hume is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Fordham University, with degrees from the College of the Holy Cross (B.A.) and the University of Virginia (M.A., Ph.D.). His research interests are in the areas of constitutional law and judicial policy development, with particular emphasis on the impact of court decisions. His first book, How Courts Impact Federal Administrative Behavior (2009), won the 2010 Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award in Professional Studies. He has also published in American Politics Research, the Law & Society Review, the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Justice System Journal, and Publius.