The U.S. Supreme Court was greeted with some bad news in the first week of its new session. This time it’s not another scandal for Justice Clarence Thomas—although that happened, too—but something partly stemming from those scandals: really bad approval ratings and a heightened thirst for court reform among the public.
ABC News released a poll Monday finding “dismal approval ratings” for the court of just 38%. A majority of 54% disapprove, an average net approval rating of -16%. Ouch. “The court’s net approval rating at the beginning of September was the lowest since our tracker began in December 2020,” ABC reports.
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Marquette Law School chimed in on Tuesday with its findings: 57% of respondents disapprove of the job the court is doing while just 43% approve, and “approval of the Court has remained below 50% since May 2022.” Marquette also finds that a majority of Americans—52%—believe the justices’ decisions are motivated mainly by politics rather than the law. When they asked that question for the first time back in September 2019, 35% said politics was the primary motivation behind court decisions.
Gallup released its latest survey results last week, finding that views of the court “remain near record lows,” with 58% of Americans saying they disapprove of the way the Supreme Court is handling its job, compared to just 41% who approve of it. Meanwhile, Gallup shows fewer than one-half of Americans say they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the judicial branch for only the second time since 1973.
The corollary to low approval ratings is the public’s desire to see the institution reformed. Marquette found that 54% of Americans support increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court, while only 46% oppose it. That is the highest level of support and lowest level of opposition to Supreme Court expansion Marquette has found since it started asking about the proposal in 2019.
A Morning Consult/Politico tracking poll released this week also found plurality support for expanding the court, with 44% of registered voters strongly or somewhat approving of adding justices to the court, while 35% strongly or somewhat disapprove.
The demographic breakdown in that one is notable, with millennial, Gen Z, Black, and Democratic voters all supporting expansion:
A plurality of self-described moderates also support expansion, at 49% compared to 27% opposed.
The court is taking up more momentous and dangerous cases this session involving issues like the federal government’s ability to tax, the government’s right to provide environmental and consumer protections, civil and voting rights, and gun safety. The nine justices will likely consider a challenge to the legality of the abortion pill, and social media cases. Once again, they’re going to be deciding cases that directly affect the lives of Americans. And Americans are paying attention.
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