Politics

Supreme Court out of public favor after controversial term

Ariel Cohen Contributor
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After releasing a slew of controversial end-of-term rulings, the United States Supreme Court is at an unprecedented low in public opinion.

A Rasmussen Report poll finds that 30 percent of the American public rate the Court’s performance as “poor.” Just 28 percent of those polled believe that the Court is doing a “good” or excellent job,” and 39 percent rated the court as “fair.”

During the last two weeks of the 2013 term, the Supreme Court released controversial decisions on affirmative action, voting rights and same-sex marriage, decisions that generated much dissent.

Just four years ago, Supreme Court approval ratings were at an all-time high, at 48 percent. Since then, the high court’s rating has steadily declined. Today’s approval ratings are even lower than when the Supreme Court released its extremely controversial Health Care  decision in 2012.

Just before the Court released its final decisions last week, 30 percent of Americans polled gave the Court “good” or “excellent” approval ratings. While the change may seem minute, it also represents an ideological shift. Positive ratings increased among liberal voters by 13 percent, whereas they fell among conservative voters by eight percent.

Of those surveyed, over 39 percent of voters believe that the Court is too liberal whereas 24 percent find it too conservative

The survey, conducted by Rasmussen Reports, polled 1,000 likely voters.

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