Despite assertions to the contrary being widely disseminated by most of the mainstream media—based upon a recent poll conducted by Gallup—a new poll from The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports clearly indicates a majority of Americans support the Supreme Court.
Interestingly, Gallup’s press release from June 23 is very misleading, stating, “Americans’ confidence in the court has dropped sharply over the past year and reached a new low in Gallup’s nearly 50-year trend. Twenty-five percent of U.S. adults say they have ‘a great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’ of confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court, down from 36% a year ago and five percentage points lower than the previous low recorded in 2014.”
Nowhere in the press release does Gallup mention the fact that, in addition to the 25 percent of individuals reporting high levels of confidence, 43 percent of respondents reported “some” confidence in our country’s highest court. Gallup’s claims are based upon cherry-picked information, and the result has been a bevy of news outlets and publications pushing headlines such as “Public Confidence in Supreme Court Sinks To 25%, Poll Says” (Forbes) and “Record low 25% of Americans have confidence in Supreme Court,” (CNN).
The aforementioned 43 percent figure has remained static for nearly a decade, never deviating from a 4-point margin (40-43). In fact, the 43 percent figure is the highest since 2008. When combining the numbers, the reality is that 68 percent of respondents have at least have some confidence in the Supreme Court, which is an equally important point to report.
The Heartland/Rasmussen poll, though measuring a slightly different concept via favorability rather than confidence, reflects a similar story. In fact, 29 percent of likely voters hold a very favorable view of the Supreme Court, 23 percent hold a somewhat favorable view, and 18 percent hold a somewhat unfavorable view. Combined, the 70 percent of respondents who do not hold a “very unfavorable” view of the Court strongly correlates to the 68 percent of respondents in Gallup’s poll who do not have “very little” confidence.
Though these statistics are more heartening than the mainstream press would have you believe, there are still very disturbing elements to be found within the other questions asked within the Heartland/Rasmussen poll—particularly when it comes to young voters and Democrats.
A staggering 67 percent of Democrats either somewhat or strongly agree that the U.S. Supreme Court is a fundamentally sexist institution, as do 54 percent of young voters (ages 19-39). Moreover, 56 percent of Democrats agree that the Supreme Court is fundamentally racist, along with 49 percent of young voters.
The Supreme Court’s primary purpose is to be the final arbiter of the law. How can it be sexist or racist, unless the laws it is interpreting are somehow crafted that way? Not to mention, the Court has substantial diversity in gender and race; almost half of the Supreme Court is now made up of female justices, and three non-white justices occupy the Supreme Court for the first time in the institution’s history (Clarence Thomas, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Sonia Sotomayor).
Further, 64 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of young voters would favor packing the court, expanding the number of justices from nine to 13.
So, because some recent rulings have not gone the way that certain people like, they want to overhaul the system and pack the court with justices who would be appointed by Biden. That’s not how our constitutional republic works. If you want different results, work through established democratic processes, such as electing new leaders to Congress who will pass legislation.
Worse still, 53 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of young voters want to literally abolish the Supreme Court, and establish a new Supreme Court chosen directly by the American public.
Again, that is not how our nation functions. We do not live in a direct democracy, thankfully; we live in a constitutional republic. We do not directly elect justices, because that would fundamentally alter the Supreme Court from a legal institution into yet another political institution, like our executive and legislative branches.
Finally, 48 percent of young voters and 39 percent of Democrats want to go even further, favoring a constitutional amendment that would give the United Nations ultimate authority to reverse Supreme Court decisions.
I don’t even need to get into how terrible and ridiculous that idea is. Yet, nearly half of America’s future leaders support it, which—along with their support for the other measures—is the most distressing aspect found within this poll.
Nevertheless, these results are not particularly surprising, when one considers the degree to which our education system and our society has been infiltrated by radical ideas. For years, Americans have been spoon-fed a constant barrage of ideologically driven information suggesting that everything about our country and its history is bad, and must be changed, and this is being pushed from the very top of the Democratic Party.
Sadly, the Supreme Court has become one of the biggest targets of leftist ire. In recent years, several justices have had their right to privacy impeded by radical leftists and a few have even had their lives put in danger. This, despite it clearly being illegal to protest with the intent to influence a ruling—though this has not been enforced by Merrick Garland’s Justice Department.
Justice Kavanaugh was nearly assassinated at his home by a man who traveled all the way from California just to target him based upon the leaked Dobbs v. Jackson opinion, and even this has not stirred much of our left-wing leadership to action.
Kavanaugh was again targeted while eating dinner last week by protesters seeking to remove him from the restaurant. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre appeared ambivalent, ducking Fox correspondent Peter Doocy’s justified questions about justices’ rights to privacy and safety. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was particularly vicious, stating, “Poor guy. He left before his souffle because he decided half the country should risk death if they have an ectopic pregnancy within the wrong state lines. It’s all very unfair to him.”
These attacks upon the Supreme Court—both in terms of the justices themselves and the institution they uphold—must cease. Leaders on the left must stop enabling them, and stoking this misplaced anger. There are other, democratic methods to achieve the goals many progressives want, and they do not involve tearing down our country’s entire institutional framework.
Jack McPherrin (jmcpherrin@heartland.org)is research editor at The Heartland Institute.