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The Priestly Tribe: The Supreme Court's Image in the American Mind, by Barbara A. Perry. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999. 169 pp. $59.95 cloth. ISBN: 0-275-96598-8. $17.95 paper. ISBN: 0-275-96599-6.
As its title suggests, The Priestly Tribe addresses the nearly religious reverence in which our nation's highest court is sometimes held. Barbara Perry asks: How does the Court confront contentious political issues (abortion, capital punishment, discrimination) while maintaining an image of being above the political battle? To what extent does the Court's "priestly" image contribute to its legitimacy? Would the Court lose its legitimacy without that image?
In addressing the perpetuation of the Court's image, Perry looks at factors as diverse as the Supreme Court building's architecture; presentations, displays, and publications by employees of the Court; the rhetoric of judicial opinions; the justices' stances in oral argument; speeches and articles by the justices; and newspaper reporting and analysis. All of these phenomena, Perry shows, project an image of the Supreme Court as a dignified institution set apart from the ugliness of ordinary politics.
Perry's provocative thesis is that the image of the Court as impartial and the relative anonymity of the justices are crucial to the Court's legitimacy. She points out that while the public's approval of Congress and the President has declined precipitously since about 1964, the Court's image has remained relatively stable. Perry attributes this positive view of the institution...