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Confidence in the Supreme Court’s decision-making is falling among Americans, according to a new Washington Post-Ipsos poll, with nearly of half of adults believing that the justices are guided by political ideology rather than the rule of law.
The poll, conducted earlier this month, found that 46 percent of Americans think that the Supreme Court rules on Trump administration policies based on their political views. One-quarter of respondents said the court rules based on the law, while nearly 30 percent expressed no opinion.
Of those who see the justices’ political views as decisive, about two-thirds said the court’s rulings mainly favored Trump while 17 percent said they mainly opposed Trump. Seventeen percent believe the rulings neither favor nor disfavor the president.
The Supreme Court handed down its final decisions of the term at the end of June, issuing sweeping rulings that strengthened the president’s power to fire heads of independent agencies, allowed immigration officers to turn back asylum seekers at the southern border, authorized the administration to end deportation protections for thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants and upheld statewide transgender athlete bans in schools.
But the term wasn’t all wins for Trump.
The high court struck down his sweeping global tariffs in February, invalidated an executive order that sought to end birthright citizenship and ruled that he couldn’t sack a Federal Reserve governor, at least for now.
Overall, the poll found that 55 percent of Americans disapprove of the Supreme Court’s performance compared to 41 percent who approve.
Approval ratings are notably higher among Republicans. About two-thirds said they approve of the court, which has a 6-3 conservative lean, while three-quarters of Democrats disapprove. Nearly 60 percent of independents also disapprove of the court, according to the survey.
The numbers reflect a growing distrust among the American public in core U.S. institutions, including the presidency, Congress, the Supreme Court, the military, public schools, the criminal justice system and the police.
Twenty-seven percent of adults surveyed in a recent Gallup poll expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the court, a figure that matched how respondents felt about the presidency.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett told lawmakers earlier this week that she recognized the court was “under real fire these days,” even as she split with Justice Elena Kagan on the need for an independent enforcement mechanism to ensure the justices are upholding its ethics code.
“I think we have to demonstrate at every turn that we are understanding of the kind of morality that we need to have, and that we need to demonstrate to the public about how important we take the roles that we have, and that we’re not somehow abridging the system or abusing the system,” Barrett said during budget testimony on Capitol Hill.
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