“Following major, end-of-term rulings on the Affordable Care Act and same-sex marriage, unfavorable opinions of the Supreme Court have reached a 30-year high. And opinions about the court and its ideology have never been more politically divided,” reports the Pew Research Center in a survey released Wednesday that reveals 48 percent of Americans have a favorable impression of the court, while 43 percent view the court unfavorably - the highest percentage of negativity recorded since 1985.
There’s an inevitable partisan divide: a third of Republicans have a favorable opinion of the court, compared to 62 percent of Democrats.
Only 18 percent of Americans say the court itself is conservative. Here’s some more numbers:
56 percent of Americans say Supreme Court justices should “consider what most Americans think” when making decisions; 56 percent of conservative Republicans and 50 percent of liberal Democrats agree.
54 percent of Americans say the Supreme Court has the “right amount of power”; 43 percent of conservative Republicans and 71 percent of liberal Democrats agree.
36 percent overall say the court has too much power; 49 percent of conservative Republicans and 19 percent of liberal Democrats agree.
39 percent overall say the Supreme Court is middle of the road; 24 percent of conservative Republicans and 49 percent of liberal Democrats agree.
36 percent say the court is liberal; 68 percent of conservative Republicans and 17 percent of liberal Democrats agree.
18 percent say the court is conservative; 5 percent of conservative Republicans and 30 percent of liberal Democrats agree.
Source: A Pew Research Center poll of 2,002 U.S. adults conducted July 14-20 and released Wednesday.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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