Supreme Court Public Approval Tumbles After Abortion Ruling

US Supreme Court approval ratings have sunk to new partisan depths with a sharply larger share of Americans in a new survey saying the justices have too much power.

The latest Pew Research Center data released Thursday showed favorable views of the court tumbling to 48% in August from 70% in a similar 2020 survey. The survey was conducted weeks after the early summer ruling ending the constitutional right to abortion and other decisions pleasing conservatives.

Democratic dissatisfaction with the court has been building and well reported since late 2020 when Amy Coney Barrett replaced the late liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg and gave conservatives a much stronger advantage at 6-3. Liberal interest groups, especially, have been pushing for court expansion and term limits.

But the Pew national survey of more than 7,600 adults conducted between Aug. 1-14 illustrates the depth of the partisan fallout. The gap is worse now than in 2015 when Republicans recoiled over rulings for same-sex marriage and Obamacare.

“Americans’ ratings of the Supreme Court are now as negative as—and more politically polarized than—at any point in more than three decades of polling,” Pew researchers said in their report.

For instance, 28% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents have positive views of the court, down nearly 40 percentage points from two years ago, according to the survey of mostly registered voters. Similar views among Republicans and Republican leaners are roughly the same over the period at more than 70%.

Some 45% of survey respondents say the court has too much power, up 20 points from 2020. Democratic views on power misalignment have risen sharply while Republicans surveyed mainly believe the court strikes the right balance.

A Gallup poll prior to the abortion ruling and another bolstering gun rights that also outraged Democrats, showed public confidence in the court at a new low. And a September 2021 Marquette Law School survey found a sharp drop in Supreme Court approval to 49% nationwide.