Democracy and Distrust

The most influential answer to the hardest question about courts: when should unelected judges overrule the elected majority? Ely's answer is elegant. Courts should step in to keep the channels of democracy open and to protect those shut out of the political process, rather than to impose the judges' own values. The theory shaped a generation of constitutional argument because it gives judicial review a democratic justification rather than an aristocratic one.

The constitutional scholar who offered the most influential answer to the hardest question about judicial power: when should unelected judges override elected majorities? Democracy and Distrust argues that courts should intervene to keep the channels of democracy open and to protect those shut out of them, rather than to impose their own values. The theory shaped a generation of argument about what the Court is for.