Public opinion outweighs.
Bednar 14 Jenna Bednar, PoliSci Prof @ UMich [The Resilience of the American Federal System, Handbook of Constitutional Law, Oxford University Press, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jbednar/WIP/handbook.pdf]//BPS
Theorists of popular constitutionalism observe that behind Court decisions is a public will; the Court may validate or express vaguely formed public impressions.15 Underlying social pressures and approval, manifested, for example in social movements or elections, may create an environment where it possible for the Court to make pivotal decisions. Small policy adjustments, or new ideas circulating in political discourse, may not alter the distribu¬tion of authority in any significant way, but these first steps give the public a way to shift its perception about the appropriate distribution. They lay the groundwork for bigger, more formal change. Seen this way, major Court decisions or legislative acts—those described as "pathbreaking"—are nearly inevitable once cultural shifts lay the groundwork. The direction of change was already set by cultural forces, and the only question is how far and how quickly the Court will push the federation in a new direction.