TANKING APPROVAL RATINGS

Positive Views of SCOTUS Take a Nosedive After Abortion Ruling

While favorable views of the court have risen modestly among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, Democrats’ approval has plummeted.

Pew Research Center polled 7,647 adults between Aug. 1 and 14 and found a near-even split over the public’s views of the Supreme Court: 48 percent holds a favorable view, while 49 percent has an unfavorable one. But within these numbers lie what Pew called the most “negative” and “politically polarized” ratings that the nonpartisan think tank has ever found in its three decades of polling. In the wake of the court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, only 28 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents view the court favorably—down 18 percent since January and nearly 40 percent since 2020. Meanwhile, Republican and Republican-leaning answers have only increased modestly, up 8 percent since 2020. This recent study comes after Dobbs v. Jackson and several other high-profile cases in which the justices voted along ideological lines.