Supreme Court's Image Declines as Nomination Battle Looms Court Critics Now on Both Left and Right
With an aging Supreme Court possibly facing major changes, the court's public image has eroded significantly. Currently, 57% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Supreme Court, with 30% expressing an unfavorable view. In the past, favorable views of the court typically have surpassed 70%; even in January 2001, shortly after the Supreme Court's ruling deciding the contentious presidential election, 68% expressed a positive opinion of the court.
Two very different factors are contributing to the court's lower standing with the public. Democrats turned more negative toward the Supreme Court in the wake of its controversial decision in Bush v. Gore. Positive opinions of the court among Democrats fell from 78% in May 1997 to 61% in January 2001. Democratic support for the court has continued to ebb, and now stands at 51%.
But much of the recent decline in positive views of the court has come among conservative Republicans. Favorable opinions of the Supreme Court among both conservative Republicans and white evangelical Protestants have declined by about 20 points since January 2001. An analysis of the poll finds that Republicans who want the court to take a tougher stand against abortion rights are more dissatisfied with the court than Republicans who do not.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted June 8-12 among 1,464 Americans, finds that the struggle over the court's future is beginning to intensify. Overall, 47% of the public says the selection of the next Supreme Court justice is very important to them personally, up from 38% in March.
On what is likely to be a pivotal issue in a Supreme Court nomination battle - abortion rights - the public continues to strongly oppose the complete overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision. By 63%-30%, the public rejects the idea of completely overturning the 1973 decision. That margin has remained stable for more than a decade. Conservative Republicans are by far the most supportive of overturning the Roe v. Wade decision (62%). This represents a deep division within the Republican base, as Republicans who describe themselves as moderate or liberal favor maintaining Roe v. Wade by a 71% to 25% margin.
Dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court among Republicans is closely tied to views about Roe v. Wade. The roughly half of Republicans who would like to see the abortion decision overturned are twice as likely as their counterparts who support the status quo to give the Court an unfavorable rating (33% vs. 16%).
View complete report <http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=247>