Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2004

Abstract

The essay strives for a better understanding of the myths, symbols, categories of power, and images deployed by the Supreme Court to signal how we ought to think about its authority. Taking examples from free speech jurisprudence, the essay proceeds in three steps. First, Tsai argues that the First Amendment constitutes a deep source of cultural authority for the Court. As a result, linguistic and doctrinal innovation in the free speech area have been at least as bold and imaginative as that in areas like the Commerce Clause. Second, in turning to cognitive theory, he distinguishes between formal legal argumentation and informal deployment of images, metaphors, scripts and frames of understanding. Third, the Author examines the frame of institutional conflict, an especially powerful rhetorical strategy that appears not only in federalism cases, but also in speech cases. Finally, he examines the psychological dimension of this language device, the underlying script that is played out when the frame is invoked in our minds, and the relationship between the metaphor of conflict and enduring cognitive ideals.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.