Marquette poll: Confidence in Supreme Court falling in court of public opinion

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WBAY) - A new, national survey by Marquette Law School Poll says more than 3 in 5 Americans disapprove of how the U.S. Supreme Court is doing its job. The high court has a 38% approval rating and a 61% disapproval rating. Compare that to 44% approve/55% disapprove in May, or a 60% approve/39% disapprove in July of last year.

The poll numbers show how partisan people are in their view of the court. While Republican approval sits at 67 percent, Democrat approval plunged from 52 percent in March to just 15 percent in July. Support from independents also fell, from 51 to 39 percent. (There was also a strong political divide when respondents were asked about Second Amendment rights: 95% of Republicans support the right to carry a gun outside the home, 82% of Democrats do not.)

The falling opinion of the court comes after a number of conservative-leaning rulings, including expanding gun rights outside the home, permitting public funding for children to attend religious schools, and, the most controversial, overturning Roe v. Wade.

“The drop has mostly come recently,” poll director Charles Franklin affirmed. “In March approval was still at 54 percent. Then after the leaked opinion it fell to 44 percent before now slipping to 38, so it’s been a pretty sustained slide -- but it’s particularly striking when you look at where the court was just one year ago.”

The Marquette poll found opinions that favored or opposed overturning Roe changed very little over the last 3 years regardless of political affiliation. So what was it that changed public opinion about the Supreme Court so much?

Action 2 News at 4:30 anchor Chris Roth talked with poll director Charles Franklin about this national poll. Watch the full interview above. Details about the poll and how questions were phrased can be found on the Marquette University Law School Poll website.

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