Today, 54% of U.S. adults say they have a favorable opinion of the Supreme Court, while 44% have an unfavorable view. And 84% say justices should not bring their political views into decisions.
Here is a roundup of Americans’ views of the court, perceptions of its ideology, the history of confirmations and justices’ backgrounds.
It’s worth remembering that vacancies on the Supreme Court didn’t always devolve into partisan slugfests.
Only 70 of the 3,843 people who have ever served as federal judges as of Feb. 1, 2022, have been Black women.
Today, 54% of U.S. adults say they have a favorable opinion of the Supreme Court, while 44% have an unfavorable view. And 84% say justices should not bring their political views into decisions.
Donald Trump leaves the White House having appointed nearly as many appeals court judges in four years as Barack Obama appointed in eight.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) said in August that the U.S. Supreme Court has the right amount of power.
Christians are more likely than religiously unaffiliated Americans to see the Supreme Court favorably (69% vs. 51%).
Three-quarters of Republicans have a favorable opinion of the Supreme Court, compared with only about half of Democrats.
Ahead of the Senate’s deliberations over Kavanaugh, here’s a look at where the public stands on some of the major legal, political and social issues that could come before the Supreme Court in the years ahead.
A week after Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to fill Justice Anthony Kennedy’s seat on the Supreme Court, the public is split in its early views of the nomination.