In this chapter, I examine popular vertical issues – cases in which the Supreme Court issued a popular ruling that could be implemented by lower-court judges. Because these rulings faced little public opposition and could be directly implemented by judicial actors, few scholars would be surprised to find that these rulings had a strong effect on the behavior of state and private actors. My case selection process identifies only two cases that meet these criteria. In each of these cases, I find that the Court's rulings successfully altered the behavior of the relevant actors.

THE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RESTORATION ACT

Although some Supreme Court rulings involve a few isolated events crammed into a relatively short time period, other legal issues span centuries of interrelated political conflict. A prime example of such a sprawling legal issue is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA). The explanation of why Congress passed RFRA must begin more than a century earlier with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Following the end of the Civil War in 1865, Congress quickly approved and the states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment prohibiting the practice of slavery.