WASHINGTON (AP) — A large majority of Americans say Supreme Court justices are more likely to be guided by their own ideology than to act as neutral arbiters of government authority, a new poll finds, as the Supreme Court takes office. is about to rule on major cases involving the former president Donald Trump and other divisive issues.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found that 7 in 10 Americans think Supreme Court justices are more influenced by ideology, while only about 3 in 10 American adults think the justices are more likely to be independent will exercise control over other branches of government by being fair and impartial.
The poll reflects the continuing erosion of trust in the Supreme Court, which enjoyed broader confidence just a decade ago. It underscores the challenge the nine justices — six appointed by Republican presidents and three by Democrats — face in being seen as anything other than another element of Washington’s hyper-partisanship.
The justices are expected to soon decide whether Trump is immune from criminal prosecution over his efforts to overturn his 2020 reelection defeat, but the poll shows many Americans are already uneasy about the justices’ ability to rule impartially .
“It’s very political. There’s no question about that,” said Jeff Weddell, a 67-year-old automotive technology representative from Macomb County, in the presidential swing state of Michigan.
“The court’s decision-making is so tainted,” said Weddell, a political independent who plans to vote for Trump in November. “Whatever they say about President Trump’s immunity will be politically motivated.”
Confidence in the Supreme Court remains low. A poll of 1,088 adults found that four in 10 American adults say they have little confidence in the people running the Supreme Court, in line with an October AP-NORC poll. As recently as early 2022, before the high-profile ruling that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, an AP-NORC poll found that only about a quarter of Americans lacked confidence in the judges.
And while the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has scored some historic victories on Republican policy priorities in recent years, rank-and-file Republicans are not giving the justices convincing support.
It has been two years since the court ruled on the right to abortion. Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — Trump nominees confirmed by a Republican Senate — were part of the majority that overturned the nearly fifty-year precedent on abortion rights set in Roe v. Wade.
During this year’s parliamentary term, in which a dozen cases are still undecided, several important statements have already been made. Earlier in June, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld access to the pharmaceutical drug mifepristone, a drug used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the US last year. That same week, the court struck down a Trump-era gun restriction banning rapid-fire gun accessories known as bump stocks, a victory for gun rights advocates.
According to the new poll, only about half of Republicans have a lot or a moderate amount of confidence in the court’s handling of key issues, including gun policy, abortion, elections and voting, and presidential power and immunity.
“I don’t have much confidence in the Supreme Court. And that’s a shame because that’s the final word, the final check and balance for our three-tier government,” said Matt Rogers, a 37-year-old Republican from Knoxville, Tennessee.
Other Republicans share that distrust, even though the court’s current makeup is more conservative than any court in modern history. They are also divided over whether the judges are guided more by personal ideology or by impartiality. About half of Republicans say judges are more likely to shape the law to suit their own ideology, and half say they are likely to be an independent auditor. on their equivalent branches.
“I think they are being influenced and pressured by a lot of people and a lot of entities on the left,” said Rogers, a health and wellness trainer who plans to vote for Trump for a third time this year. “Let’s face it. It’s all about crucifying Trump.”
Some Republicans are less confident than others in the court’s handling of specific issues. For example, the poll found that about 6 in 10 Republican women have little to no confidence in the court’s handling of presidential power and immunity, compared to 45% of Republican men.
Janette Majors, a Republican from Ridgefield, Washington, says it’s only natural for a judge to reflect the ideology of the president who nominated him.
But events outside the Supreme Court chambers have left her with less confidence in the people who run the court.
“What you hear about Clarence Thomas, who takes trips that rich people pay for, makes me think there are some individuals out there who don’t sound like I should trust them,” Majors said, referring unprompted to messages that Thomas has received classified information for years. expensive gifts, including trips, from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow.
Democrats and independents are even more skeptical about the court’s neutrality, according to the poll.
About 8 in 10 Democrats — and about 7 in 10 independents — say the justices are more likely to tailor the law to their own ideology. A similar share has little or no confidence in the way the court handles abortion, gun policy, presidential power and immunity.
Michigan Democrat Andie Near noted in 2016 that the court appeared to be becoming a political tool when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to allow hearings on US Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland Democratic President Barack Obama.
McConnell quickly allowed hearings after Trump nominated Gorsuch within 10 days of taking office in 2017.
“I would have thought that the court, while perhaps skewed to the left or right, served the entire country,” said the 42-year-old museum official from Holland, Michigan. “Then it came to great relief that the Supreme Court is being used to distort the political climate in which we live, and it has only gotten worse.”
___
The poll of 1,088 adults was conducted June 20-24, 2024, using a sample from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points for all respondents.
___
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
