Supreme Court Suffers Dramatic Decline In New Approval Polling

That is a big deal, because stare decisis leads to “evenhanded, predictable, and consistent development” of laws, according to the Cornell Law School. Decisions can then be appreciated as being respected and evolving into a richer law. But when the Supreme Court decided to not make a decision on whether to consider the Texas unconstitutional abortion law and let it stand in place, they blew a big hole through stare decisis. And through the public’s opinion of the court.

Marquette University Law School conducted a poll on how people feel about the Supreme Court now. In July, 60 percent of those interviewed supported the Court. Now, only 49 percent do. Worse, that number dropped from 66 percent a year ago, according to The Milwaukee Sentinel Journal.

Poll Director Charles Franklin released an online Marquette Law School Poll YouTube video where he said:

‘That is quite a change. The court has in other polling, as well as ours, often had a pretty high approval rating and one that has seemed pretty stable from survey to survey, but we’re seeing quite a bit of change over this course of these last two months.’

Part of that ill-feeling comes from how Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stole President Barack Obama’s last Supreme Court choice in 2016 based upon a rule that only lived within the Grim Reaper’s head. What we did not know at the time was that McConnell’s rule was only applicable to Democratic presidents. Republican presidents were able to install a justice just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.

In addition, Donald Trump’s Brett Kavanaugh was run through his hearing in spite of an extremely credible witness accusing him of a sexual attack — hardly up to justice quality standards. Now, there are six conservatives to three moderate justices about to take up a case to take a Mississippi suit wanting to completely overturn Roe v. Wade.

Since July, support for the Supreme Court has dropped significantly among Democrats and Independents, because abortion and other issues appear political. The Court is supposed to remain apolitical. Of course, results remain static with Republicans.

• ‘Fifty-eight percent said over time they trusted the Supreme Court the most
• 25% said they trusted the presidency the most, and
• 16% said they trusted Congress the most.’

We can break that down even further. On abortion, 50 percent would oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, but 20 percent supported it. There was 40 percent who supported the Mississippi law, 33 percent would find it unconstitutional, and 27 percent were undecided.

There was 30 percent who supported the new Texas law banning abortion when a heartbeat could be found, at about six weeks, but before most women knew they were even pregnant. There was 46 percent who opposed it, and 23 percent were undecided.

On Elections:

• ’25 percent gave states broad authority to set voting rules
• 33 percent opposed that
• 39 percent were undecided.’

On Guns:

• ’44 percent favored the Second Amendment right to carry a gun out of the home
• 26 percent opposed it
• 29 percent were undecided’

On Schools:

• ’33 percent would support courts ruling withholding aid only from religious schools  as unconstitutional
• 15 percent opposed it.
• 50 percent were undecided.’

Court Changes

A full 60 percent thout justices decided cases on the law while 39 percent thought it was on politics. And 72 percent supported fixed terms for justices not the lifetime appointments. This was the same for the past two years.