This study investigates the validity of the common practice of differentiating between “high” and “low frequency” periods of congressional attacks on the Supreme Court. In-depth examination of the Congressional Record from 1955–1984 reveals 1,497 previously uncounted constitutional amendment attacks. Rather than starting and stopping, the never-ending court curbing efforts of this era evolved in four phases, differentiated by shifts in an unexamined dimension—leadership of attacks. This suggests that modern attacks may be a way for partisan and regional coalition managers to “signal” others (including those outside the Court) in efforts to maintain, build, or assert their party's dominance. Court curbing may therefore play a greater role than realized in party system development, making congressional attacks an overlooked “mechanism” through which coalitional change may be both opposed and wrought.
Public evaluations of the Supreme Court are influenced by response to the Court's rulings, but the specific elements of decisions that affect such institutional appraisals require identification. In particular, previous investigators have been unable to determine if support of the Supreme Court moves in response to the substantive aspects of decisions, public concern with democratic procedure, or attention to both substance and procedure. This article presents the results of an experiment designed to distinguish the possible influences of substantive and procedural concerns. Findings reveal that the substantive aspects of Court rulings exert significant influence on evaluations of the Supreme Court, affecting institutional support, confidence in the Court's justices, and specific support of each of the three decisions that were studied. In contrast, concern with the democratic implications of activist rulings failed to alter any dimension of Court approval.
Blunt trauma abdomen rarely leads to gastrointestinal injury in children and isolated gastric rupture is even rarer presentation. We are reporting a case of isolated gastric rupture after fall from height in a three year old male child.