A Rasmussen Poll out today reported that confidence in the Supreme Court has reached an all-time low, right down there with the public’s confidence in Congress. Various polls taken during the year have also shown a drop in confidence in the Court and an increase in the perception of politics in the Justice’s decisions.But the polling of Liberals and their approval of teh Supreme Court confuses me, or maybe it is liberals who are confused.
A Rasmussen Poll out today found that confidence in the Supreme Court has reached an all-time low, right along with the public’s confidence in Congress. A CNN poll released June 20, showed slightly higher approval ratings, but the same trend of a steady drop in confidence in the Court. Vaarious polls taken during the year have also shown a drop in confidence in the Court and an increased in perception of the political nature of the Justice’s decisions.
The U.S. Supreme Court finished its term with big decisions on voting rights, affirmative action and same-sex marriage. Apparently no one liked those decisions – or, more accurately, some people liked one or more of them and most people hated one or more of them. Following the rulings last and this week, a Rasmussen national telephone survey found that just 28% of those polled (screened for registered voters) believe the Supreme Court is doing a good or an excellent job and 30% rated its performance as poor. Thirty-nine percent (39%) rated the court’s performance as fair.
That’s the highest-ever poor rating. It’s also the first time ever that the poor ratings have topped the good ratings. Worse, for the Court, these ratings are even weaker than those following the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding Obama Care last year, which according to other surveys, only 40% of Americans realize actually happened.
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If you look beneath the surface of the good-bad ratings you find some interesting things. Positive ratings increased among liberal voters and fell among conservatives and moderates. That’s right, according Rasmussen, positive ratings of the Court increased by 13 points among liberals and fell by eight points among conservatives and by seven among moderates.
Why? The Roberts Court is one of the most conservative in recent memory. Liberals are devastated by the destruction of the Voting Rights Act and the punt on Affirmative action. They should have rated the Court highly negative
The conservative opinion is easier to understand. Conservatives, as usual, were outraged over the DOMA decision and unhappy over the punting of Affirmative action when they hoped for a win, although they win that one in the end. But conservatives are always outraged when things don’t go 100% their way, so their response was predictable.
But liberals? I don’t get it.
Following the Supreme Court session four years ago, 48% rated the justices as doing a good or excellent job. It has been downhill ever since with ratings in the mid-30’s in 2010 and 2011.
Again, the changes are puzzling. Following the 2009 court session, when Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined the Court, 48% of conservatives gave the court good marks. So did 51% of moderates and 46% of liberals. Since then, approval among conservatives has fallen by a huge 32 points while approval among moderates has fallen only 21 points and – this is the big surprise - numbers among liberals are unchanged. What is more puzzling is that 39% of voter polled s now believe the court is too liberal, while 24% believe it is too conservative.
Of course, we must take these numbers with a large bolder of salt given the rightward-lean of the Rasmussen poll. But even so, give the sustained loses this year by liberals, the remarks from the bench by Justice Scalia seen as racist by many, and the conservative activism of the court last year with Citizens United and this year with the Voting Rights act decision are a conservative nuclear attack on liberal democracy. , I don’t understand why liberals are not outraged to the point that their approval of the Court is far less that 29% and that the majority of the American people don’t see the Court as conservative. I know that historians will.