How do court decisions on controversial immigration policies affect support for hierarchies between groups? I analyse the UK Supreme Court’s ruling on the Rwanda asylum plan and how it affects people’s support for racial hierarchies, measured by social dominance orientation. Utilising the unexpected event during survey design I show that the Supreme Court’s ruling on the illegality of the Rwanda asylum plan increased support for racial and ethnic hierarchies among the British public. The effect is primarily driven by White Britons. The results suggest that declaring the Rwanda plan unconstitutional threatened the British public and made them more in favour of hierarchies between groups, where immigrants are in a subordinate position. This paper is the first to utilise the unexpected event during survey design in the study of political values. The results have important implications for the study of political behaviour, political values, far-right support and prejudice against immigrants.
