Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Loyola University Chicago Law Journal
Abstract
What happens to partisan politics when long-standing doctrinal equilibria are upended? In search of answers, this essay engages in an extended comparison of two recent landmark Supreme Court rulings: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade, and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overruled Chevron USA v. Natural Resources Defense Council.
It begins with the observation that opposition to abortion and judicial deference on the right, and support for abortion and judicial deference on the left, helped unite the major party coalitions, forging durable alliances among elected officials, organized interests, donors, activists, and voters on both sides of the aisle. It is not surprising, then, that the twin demise of Roe and Chevron has already begun to unsettle coalitional arrangements in both parties. On the right, it has exposed disagreements about the use of national power to prohibit abortion and the extent to which the administrative state should be uprooted. On the left, it has promoted new thinking about how to best defend abortion rights and strengthen federal regulatory policy.
Situating these developments in a broader theoretical framework, the essay explores why doctrinal upheaval can alternately fracture and revitalize co-partisan alliances. For those who oppose the doctrinal status quo, change often precipitates coalitional instability, as one-time allies debate what the new doctrinal equilibrium should be. For supporters of the doctrinal status quo, the loss of a favorable equilibrium may be painful, but it also encourages innovation in strategy and communication, which may in turn permit new alliances to be formed. The analysis developed here suggests that party coalitions are likely to change in tandem with changes in legal doctrine.
First Page
1
Last Page
29
Publication Date
2025
Recommended Citation
Gregory Elinson, Unraveling the Ties That Bind: How Dobbs and Loper Bright Might Reconfigure American Party Politics, 57 Loy. Chi. L.J. (forthcoming 2025).
Department
College of Law
Suggested Citation
Gregory Elinson, Unraveling the Ties That Bind: How Dobbs and Loper Bright Might Reconfigure American Party Politics, 57 Loy. Chi. L.J. (forthcoming 2025).
