Merely Judgment" usesaffirmative action in government contracting, legislative vetoes, flag burning, hatespeech, and school prayer as windows for understanding how Supreme Court decisionssend signals regarding the Court's policy preferences to institutions and actors(such as lower courts, legislatures, executive branches, and interest groups), andthen traces the responses of these same institutions and actors to Court decisions.The lower courts nearly always abide by Supreme Court precedent, but, to asurprising degree, elected branches and other institutions avoid complying withSupreme Court decisions. To explain the persistence of unconstitutional policies andlegislation, Sweet isolates the ability of institutions to derail the litigationprocess. Merely Judgment explores the mechanisms by which litigants and their peershave escaped from the clutches of litigation and thus effectively ignored, evaded, and trumped the Supreme Court.