Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has often bragged about singlehandedly blocking consideration of Obama Supreme Court pick Merrick Garland as the "single biggest decision" he’s ever made in his political career.
McConnell's handiwork in stealing that seat, along with jamming through a replacement for liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just eight days before the 2020 election, has also indefinitely sullied the once-esteemed body in the court of public opinion. After issuing a string of radical right-wing decisions, including the gutting of abortion rights, Americans have come to see the court's extremist majority as little more than a group of right-wing partisan hacks in black robes.
Multiple polls have now found public approval of the Supreme Court reaching historic lows and being underwater by double digits in some cases.
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Reuters Ipsos: 43% favorable, 57% unfavorable (-14)—before the opinion dropped, the court was 4 points above water in early June, 52% - 48%.
Navigator Research: 44% favorable, 47% unfavorable—the first time ever the high court has been underwater in the progressive consortium's polling, and a 23-point fall since February.
Gallup: Just 25% of Americans have confidence in the Supreme Court, a historic low in nearly 50 years of polling the issue. Plus the poll was take June 1-20, after the Dobbs opinion overturning Roe leaked but before it was actually handed down.
So when President Joe Biden took on the Supreme Court's ruling overturning a constitutional right to abortion, he was perfectly reflecting the opinion of the American people. Asked by a reporter at the NATO summit about America's image on the world stage, Biden said America will still be viewed strongly in many ways.
"The one thing that has been destabilizing is the outrageous behavior of the Supreme Court of the United States on overruling not only Roe v. Wade, but essentially challenging the right to privacy," Biden observed. "We’ve been a leader in the world in terms of personal rights and privacy rights, and it is a mistake, in my view, for the Supreme Court to do what it did.”
The comments brought an immediate rebuke from McConnell, who characterized the president's statements on the high court as "dangerous."
“Attacking a core American institution like the Supreme Court from the world stage is below the dignity of the President,” McConnell said in a statement.
That's rich from the McConnell, the architect of the real attack on the Supreme Court that kneecapped its credibility.
No one—literally no one—has sabotaged the Supreme Court more than McConnell. Stealing seats was a death knell for the court, which is now viewed as nothing more than a tool of right-wing activists.
Privacy as a foundational value in a post-Roe landscape on Daily Kos' The Brief podcast
