At a time when every Supreme Court appointment feels like it has an outsize impact on everyday American life, who is being nominated and how they might rule are at the forefront our highly politicized national conversation.

Yet, some legal scholars maintain that public opinion has just as much of an impact on Supreme Court rulings as precedent or constitutional interpretation. In this Conversation, we'll examine what goes into justices’ decisions, what’s happened throughout history when an activist court is out of step with public opinion, and what we can expect from the Supreme Court in 2018 and beyond.