Gallop: SCOTUS regard at lowest level in decades | Eastern North Carolina Now

Martin Walsh, writing at the ConservativeBrief.com reports:

New Gallup poll reveals the U.S. Supreme Court currently has the lowest approval rating among Americans in more than 20 years of surveys conducted by the company.

“Americans’ opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court have worsened, with 40%, down from 49% in July, saying they approve of the job the high court is doing. This represents, by two percentage points, a new low in Gallup’s trend, which dates back to 2000. The poll was conducted shortly after the Supreme Court declined to block a controversial Texas abortion law. In August, the court similarly allowed college vaccine mandates to proceed and rejected a Biden administration attempt to extend a federal moratorium on evictions during the pandemic,” Gallup reported.

For comparison, a Gallup poll at the same time last year found that 58% of Americans approved of the Supreme Court.

The poll comes after the conservative-majority Court issued favorable rulings to Republicans on cases involving abortion, immigration, and evictions.

“Not since Bush v. Gore has the public perception of the court’s legitimacy seemed so seriously threatened,” Irv Gornstein, executive director of the Georgetown Supreme Court Institute, said.

In recent weeks, three justices have publicly argued that the Court does not get political.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett fired back at critics and she did not mince her words.

While delivering remarks at McConnell Center at the University of Louisville, Barrett said she doesn’t believe the highest court in the land is politically driven and said the nation’s highest court is not filled with “partisan hacks.”

Barrett spoke specifically about the Supreme Court’s decision not to stay a Texas “heartbeat” bill that effectively outlaws abortion after fetal cardiac activity can be detected.

Earlier this month, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer made headlines when he discussed a myriad of hot topics surrounding the Court and what the future might hold.

During an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Breyer said he is opposed to the Democrats’ idea of packing the Supreme Court.

However, Breyer did say he is open to the idea of term limits instead of the current lifetime appointments.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas came out with a much more forceful statement against the perception of the Supreme Court as a partisan institution.

Thomas warned against “destroying our institutions because they don’t give us what we want, when we want it,” as he took aim at the media.

“I think the media makes it sound as though you are just always going right to your personal preference,” he said to a crowd at the University of Notre Dame. “So if they think you are anti-abortion or something personally, they think that’s the way you always will come out. They think you’re for this or for that. They think you become like a politician.”

Thomas said that not every decision he makes is one that aligns with his personal beliefs.

“You do your job and you go cry alone,” he said. “The court was thought to be the least dangerous branch and we may have become the most dangerous.”

“When we begin to venture into the legislative or executive branch lanes, those of us, particularly in the federal judiciary with lifetime appointments, are asking for trouble,” he said.

And he said he believes that it has bled into the process of nominating and confirming justices.

“I think that is problematic and hence the craziness during my confirmation was one of the results of that,” he said.

He argued that “it was absolutely about abortion — a matter I had not thought deeply about at the time.”