It has been quite a week for American jurisprudence. The United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) handed down major opinions on taxpayer support of religious schools and gun rights, but nothing compares with the reaction to the ruling on abortion.
If you are looking for me to weigh-in on my views about all these SCOTUS rulings, you won’t find that here. What I will explore is something related but different – the public’s view of one of the most important institutions in our nation – our highest court.
The Gallup polling organization has been measuring public confidence on SCOTUS since May of 1973. The court’s standing with those polled has been close to 60% in parts of the 1980s. Now, Gallup’s recent polling shows a 25% confidence rate, the lowest ever measured by Gallup.
Even among Republicans, the court has only a 39% confidence rate. Among Democrats, it is only 13%. It is the confidence rate among independents that is the most concerning, a lowly 25%. Since 2006, confidence has averaged 35% and has not exceeded 40% in any survey, according to Gallup.
This poll was conducted June 1-20 this year, before the abortion decision was published.
Why has America soured on confidence in the nation’s highest judicial institution? After reading many experts, there is a consensus building that Americans now see the court as just another political institution rather than a group of judges looking at the law impartially.
A lot of news organizations have replayed the confirmation hearings of the three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett). When asked about the Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973 establishing a constitutional right to abortion, all worded their responses very carefully, but tried to leave the impression the Roe decision was a settled precedent over nearly 50 years and would likely not be overturned.
In addition, several senators voting on these three justices appointed by Trump claim to have been assured by the recent nominees privately that Roe would not be overturned.
Washington Post reporter Amy Wang wrote that Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins believed Trump nominees Gorsuch and Kavanaugh would not vote to overturn Roe.
“This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me, where they both were insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon,” Collins was quoted in the Post story.
Then there is Democrat Joe Manchin, who issued this statement – “I trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they also believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent and I am alarmed they chose to reject the stability the ruling has provided for two generations of Americans.”
When senators voting on confirming Supreme Court justices feel deceived in the process, that is not good for the reputation of the institution.
Many American institutions have been under attack in recent years, and the United States Supreme Court is a major pillar among those institutions. When SCOTUS is not held in high regard, bad things happen.
In 1832, SCOTUS issued a ruling in the Worcester v. Georgia case, affirming the legal rights of Native American tribes. President Andrew Jackson chose to ignore the ruling, allowing one of the blackest marks in American history, the Trail of Tears, when American Indians were forced from their lands.
Jackson chose to ignore the Supreme Court ruling because he thought he could get away with it, and he did. The public did not hold SCOTUS in such high regard at that time in American history.
The public must have respect for important institutions, and those institutions must act in a way consistent with the authority & responsibilities bestowed upon those institutions. When an institution like the United States Supreme Court no longer has the confidence of a large part of the public, very bad things can happen.