Rosario Milelli (Independent Scholar) has posted Judicial Architecture and Democratic Erosion: A Critical Analysis of the Roberts Court on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This paper critically examines the role of the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts in enabling a structural decline in democratic norms and facilitating the consolidation of authoritarian political power. Through analysis of landmark rulings—Citizens United v. FEC (2010), Shelby County v. Holder (2013), Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), Trump v. United States (2024), and Louisiana v. Callais (2026)—this paper demonstrates how the Roberts Court has systematically dismantled institutional safeguards against corruption, voter suppression, civil rights erosion, and unchecked executive authority. Rather than arguing direct causation between individual rulings and electoral outcomes, the paper advances a structural argument: that the Roberts Court has created and sustained the legal architecture within which authoritarian consolidation becomes durable and self-reinforcing. The ethical conduct of Justice Clarence Thomas further compromises the Court’s institutional legitimacy. Drawing on empirical data and legal analysis, and situating the Court’s jurisprudence within the broader democratic backsliding literature, this paper argues that the Roberts Court has not merely failed to protect democracy—it has actively constructed the conditions for its erosion.
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