Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2xdlg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-25T05:53:00.122Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Latinos’ Knowledge of the Supreme Court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Francisco I. Pedraza  and
Joseph Daniel Ura
Francisco I. Pedraza
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside, USA
Joseph Daniel Ura*
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University, USA, and Texas A&M University at Qatar
*
Contact the corresponding author, Joseph Daniel Ura, at jura@tamu.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There is convincing evidence that Americans have high, stable levels of knowledge about the Supreme Court. Yet, this conclusion masks variance in political knowledge associated with ethnicity. Using data from surveys of Latinos and non-Latinos fielded before and after the Supreme Court’s rulings in Arizona v. United States and National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, we find Latinos know less about the Court than other Americans. However, Latinos’ knowledge of the Court increased significantly between the surveys, while others’ Supreme Court knowledge did not. We discuss the implications of this result for the Supreme Court’s legitimacy and civic education policy.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , Spring 2021 , pp. 27 - 48
Copyright
© 2021 by the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrajano, Marisa. 2010. Campaigning to the New American Electorate. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Abrajano, Marisa. 2015. “Reexamining the ‘Racial Gap’ in Political Knowledge.” Journal of Politics 77 (1): 44–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barabas, Jason, Jerit, Jennifer, Pollock, William, and Rainey, Carlisle. 2014. “The Question(s) of Political Knowledge.” American Political Science Review 108 (4): 840–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barreto, Matt. 2010. Ethnic Cues: The Role of Shared Ethnicity in Latino Political Participation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beltrán, Christina. 2010. The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Bickel, Alexander M. 1986. The Least Dangerous Branch: The Supreme Court at the Bar of American Politics. 2nd ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Branton, Regina. 2007. “Latino Attitudes towards Various Areas of Public Policy: The Importance of Acculturation.” Political Research Quarterly 60 (2): 293–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldeira, Gregory A. 1991. “Courts and Public Opinion.” In The American Courts: A Critical Assessment, ed. Gates, John B. and Johnson, Charles A., 303–34. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Caldeira, Gregory A., and McGuire, Kevin T. 2005. “What Americans Know about the Courts and Why It Matters.” In Institutions of American Democracy: The Judiciary, ed. Hall, Kermit L. and McGuire, Kevin T., 262–79. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chapin, June R. 2006. “The Achievement Gap in Social Studies and Science Starts Early: Evidence from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study.” Social Studies 97 (6): 231–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1957. “Decision-Making in a Democracy: The Supreme Court as a National Policy-Maker.” Journal of Public Law 6:279–95.Google Scholar
de la Garza, Rudolfo. 2004. “Latino Politics.” Annual Review of Political Science 7:91–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Garza, Rodolfo O., and Cortina, Jeronimo. 2007. “Are Latinos Republicans but Just Don’t Know It? The Latino Vote in the 2000 and 2004 Presidential Elections.” American Politics Research 35 (2): 202–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Garza, Rudolfo O., DeSipio, Louis, Garcia, F. Chris, Garcia, John, and Falcon, Angelo. 1992. Latino Voices: Mexican, Rican Puerto, Cuban Perspectives on American Politics. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Delli Carpini, Michael X., 2000. “In Search of the Informed Citizen: What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters.” Communication Review 4 (1): 129–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delli Carpini, Michael X., and Keeter, Scott. 1996. What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
DeSipio, Louis. 1996. “Making Citizens or Good Citizens? Naturalization as a Predictor of Organizational and Electoral Behavior among Latino Immigrants.” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 18 (2): 194–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen. 2011. “Do Women and Men Know Different Things? Measuring Gender Differences in Political Knowledge.” Journal of Politics 73 (1): 97–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dudley, Robert L., and Gitelson, Alan R. 2002. “Political Literacy, Civic Education, and Civic Engagement: A Return to Political Socialization?” Applied Developmental Science 6 (4): 175–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elkin, Stephen L., and Sołtan, Karol Edward. 1999. Citizen Competence and Democratic Institutions. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Fraga, Bernard L. 2018. The Turnout Gap: Race, Ethnicity, and Political Inequality in a Diversifying America. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraga Luis, John A. Garcia, Rodney E. Hero, Michael Jones-Correa, Martinez-Ebers, Valerie and Segura, Gary. 2012. Latinos in the New Millennium: An Almanac of Opinion, Behavior, and Policy Preferences. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Galston, William A. 2001. “Political Knowledge, Political Engagement, and Civic Education.” Annual Review of Political Science 4 (1): 217–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galston, William A. 2007. “Civic Knowledge, Civic Education, and Civic Engagement: A Summary of Recent Research.” International Journal of Public Administration 30 (6–7): 623–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García Bedolla, Lisa. 2014. Latino Politics. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Gaziano, Cecilie. 1997. “Forecast 2000: Widening Knowledge Gaps.” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 74 (2): 237–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. 2007. “The Legitimacy of the U.S. Supreme Court in a Polarized Polity.” Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 4 (3): 507–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L., and Gregory A. Caldeira. 1992. “Blacks and the United States Supreme Court: Models of Diffuse Support.” Journal of Politics 54 (4): 1120–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. 2009a. Citizens, Courts, and Confirmations: Positivity Theory and the Judgments of the American People. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L. 2009b. “Knowing the Supreme Court? A Reconsideration of Public Ignorance of the High Court.” Journal of Politics 71 (2): 429–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L., Caldeira, Gregory A., and Baird, Vanessa A. 1998. “On the Legitimacy of National High Courts.” American Political Science Review 92 (2): 343–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L., and Nelson, Michael J. 2014. “The Legitimacy of the U.S. Supreme Court: Conventional Wisdoms and Recent Challenges Thereto.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 10:201–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James L., and Nelson, Michael J.. 2015. “Is the U.S. Supreme Court’s Legitimacy Grounded in Performance Satisfaction and Ideology?” American Journal of Political Science 59 (1): 162–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Matthew E. K., and Ura, Joseph Daniel. 2015. “Judicial Majoritarianism.” Journal of Politics 77 (3): 818–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, Daniel, and Atkins, Robert. 2002. “Civic Competence in Urban Youth.” Applied Developmental Science 6 (4): 227–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hero, Rodney E. 2007. Racial Diversity and Social Capital: Equality and Community in America. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hetherington, Marc J. 1998. “The Political Relevance of Political Trust.” American Political Science Review 92 (4): 791–808.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hritzuk, Natasha, and Park, David K. 2000. “The Question of Latino Participation: From an SES to a Social Structural Explanation.” Social Science Quarterly 81 (1): 151–66.Google Scholar
Huckfeldt, Robert, and Sprague, John. 1988. “Choice, Social Structure, and Political Information: The Information Coercion of Minorities.” American Journal of Political Science 32 (2): 467–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kent, Jennings, M.. 1996. “Political Knowledge over Time and across Generations.” Public Opinion Quarterly 60 (2): 228–52.Google Scholar
Langton, Kenneth P., and Jennings, M. Kent. 1968. “Political Socialization and the High School Civics Curriculum in the United States.” American Political Science Review 62 (3): 852–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leal, David L. 1999. “It’s Not Just a Job: Military Service and Latino Political Participation.” Political Behavior 21 (2): 153–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leal, David L. 2007. “Latino Public Opinion: Does It Exist?” In Latino Politics: Identity, Mobilization, and Representation, ed. Espino, Rodolfo, Leal, David L., and Meier, Kenneth J. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Levinson, Meira. 2007. “The Civic Achievement Gap.” CIRCLE Working Paper no. 51, Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, Tufts University.Google Scholar
Lupia, Arthur. 2006. “How Elitism Undermines the Study of Voter Competence.” Critical Review 18 (1–3): 217–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manzano, Sylvia, and Ura, Joseph D. 2013. “Desperately Seeking Sonia? Latino Heterogeneity and Geographic Variation in Web Searches for Judge Sonia Sotomayor.” Political Communication 30 (1): 81–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masuoka, Natalie. 2008. “Defining the Group: Latino Identity and Political Participation.” American Politics Research 36 (1): 33–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michelson, Melissa R. 2001. “Political Trust among Chicago Latinos.” Journal of Urban Affairs 23(3–4): 323–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholson, Stephen P., Pantoja, Adrian, and Gary Segura. 2006. “Political Knowledge and Issue Voting among the Latino Electorate.” Political Research Quarterly 59 (2): 259–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, Richard G., and Hepburn, Mary A. 1995. “The Rebirth of Political Socialization.” Perspectives on Political Science 24 (1): 7–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pantoja, Adrian, and Segura, Gary M. 2003. “Fear and Loathing in California: Contextual Threat and Political Sophistication among Latino Voters.” Political Behavior 25 (3): 265–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedraza, Francisco I. 2014. “The Two-Way Street of Acculturation, Discrimination, and Latino Immigration Restrictionism.” Political Research Quarterly 67 (4): 889–904.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedraza, Francisco I., and Perry, Brittany N. 2020. “Validating a Measure of Perceived Parent-Child Political Socialization.” Political Research Quarterly 73 (3): 623–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prior, Markus, and Arthur, Lupia. 2008. “Money, Time, and Political Knowledge: Distinguishing Quick Recall and Political Learning Skills.” American Journal of Political Science 52 (1): 169–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, James R., and Ura, Joseph Daniel. 2020. “A Majoritarian Basis for Judicial Countermajoritarianism.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 32 (3): 435–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanchez, Gabriel R. 2006. “The Role of Group Consciousness in Latino Public Opinion.” Political Research Quarterly 59 (3): 435–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, Daron, de la Garza, Rudolfo O., and Lee, Jongho. 2000. “Examining Latino Turnout in 1996: A Three-State, Validated Survey Approach.” American Journal of Political Science 44 (2): 338–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Rogers. 1997. Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Torney-Purta, Judith, Barber, Carolyn H., and Wilkenfeld, Britt. 2007. “Latino Adolescents’ Civic Development in the United States: Research Results from the IEA Civic Education Study.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 36 (2): 111–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ura, Joseph Daniel, and Higgins Merrill, Alison. 2017. “Courts and Public Opinion.” In Oxford Handbook of U.S. Judicial Behavior, ed. Epstein, Lee and Lindquist, Stefanie, 342–59. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
US Census Bureau. 2010. “Statistical Abstract of the United States.” http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab.Google Scholar
White, Ariel. 2016. “When Threat Mobilizes: Immigration Enforcement and Latino Voter Turnout.” Political Behavior 38 (2): 355–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolak, Jennifer, and Gonzalez Juenke, Eric. 2019. “Descriptive Representation and Political Knowledge.” Politics, Groups, and Identities. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2019.1624180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Pedraza and Ura Supplementary material
Download undefined(File)
File 372.7 KB