You Will Never Guess How People Feel About the Supreme Court (They Hate It)

Democrats used to be reluctant to criticize the Court. After four years of reactionary jurisprudence, polling suggests they don't have to be so cautious anymore.

For the past several years, the Supreme Court has been relentlessly pushing the law to the right, cementing its status as the Republican Party’s most important source of political power. In a related story, for the past several years, Marquette Law School has conducted regular public opinion polling on the U.S. Supreme Court, and as it turns out, the people whose civil rights now depend on the largesse of Brett Kavanaugh are getting really, really tired of this shit.

The latest poll, which was released earlier this month, is more bad news for Chief Justice John Roberts’s one-man crusade to preserve the institution’s waning legitimacy: Just 43 percent of Americans now approve of the Court’s job performance, and 57 percent believe that the ostensibly nonpartisan justices’ decisions are in fact motivated “mainly by politics.” Only 26 percent report having a “great deal” of confidence in the Court, and 42 percent say they have little or none—the highest that number has been since July 2022, when the conservative supermajority overruled Roe v. Wade after five decades of trying. 

It’s not really a surprise that normal people would be displeased with a cabal of reactionary ideologues who are doing unpopular things. What’s more remarkable is how quickly the public arrived at this consensus. In September 2020, shortly before the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Court’s approval rating stood at 66 percent. Just 37 percent of respondents thought the justices’ decisions were motivated “mainly by politics,” compared to 62 percent who believed they were motivated “mainly by the law.” I have not seen anyone squander this much goodwill this fast since Kanye West discovered antisemitic conspiracy theories on Reddit. 

I will write more about this next week on Balls & Strikes, but I think there is a lesson here for politicians who are feeling skittish about backing Supreme Court reform proposals, particularly as a very scary election looms in November. Establishment Democrats have long been reluctant to criticize the Court too harshly—a bit of conventional wisdom reflecting the axiom that judges and justices are nonpartisan arbiters of the law, and thus entitled to deference and respect.

This might have been a prudent message back when, for example, two-thirds of voters liked the Court, and nearly as many trusted that the justices were doing law, not politics. But when four years of reactionary jurisprudence have caused these numbers to flip, that paradigm is badly outdated, to the extent that it was ever useful in the first place. Sure, the conservative justices are still hitting the speaking circuit every summer to scold audiences that judges are not “partisan hacks,” but no one takes that seriously anymore, other than people who think “listening to Brett Kavanaugh speak” is a good use of their time.

I get that in certain circles, belief in the Court’s principled nonpartisanship—or at least in the idea of a principled, nonpartisan Court—is deep-seated stuff. But for candidates for elected office, speaking out against a historically unpopular Supreme Court is no longer bold, or controversial, or risky. It is a popular message that persuadable voters want to hear, and if anything, Democrats should be doing more of it, not less.

---

As always, you can find everything we publish at ballsandstrikes.org, or follow us on Twitter at @ballsstrikes, or get in touch by emailing contact@ballsandstrikes.org. Thanks for reading.

---

This Week In Balls & Strikes

Disney Says Disney+ Terms of Service Mean Man Can’t Sue Over His Wife’s Wrongful Death, Madiba Dennie

If a megacorporation is making a shockingly amoral legal argument, the Supreme Court is usually to blame.

Deadly Polluters Think the Supreme Court Just Gave Them a Free Pass, Madiba Dennie

The justices have made clear that they don’t take administrative agencies seriously. Now, the entities regulated by those agencies are saying they don’t have to listen, either.

Happy Birthday to the Voting Rights Act, Which the Supreme Court Has Systematically Destroyed, Madiba Dennie

The “crown jewel” of the Civil Rights Movement is 59 years old this month. Thanks to the conservative justices, it is also a shell of its former self.

---

This Week In Other Stuff We Appreciated

What Can Be Done About This Supreme Court’s Very Worst Decisions?, Ian Millhiser, Vox

Republicans spent decades attacking Roe v. Wade before they had the votes to overturn it. Democrats need a similar strategy.

JD Vance’s “Constitutional Crisis” In the Making, Ankush Khardori, Politico

Is Vance malevolent, or simply dumb? The answer is yes.

---

This Week In Obscure Photos of Supreme Court Justices On Getty Images

U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts visits with Sen. Chuck Schumer prior to Roberts’s confirmation hearings, July 21, 2005 (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)