Public Confidence In The Supreme Court Is At A Low Point

According to a recent Gallup Poll, Public confidence in the Supreme Court dipped to 49% this year, nine points down from where it was just last year. Interestingly, Republicans and Democrats are equally skeptical of the Court, with political independents holding the most negative view.

To some degree, this reflects the overall lack of trust Americans have in virtually all major institutions. The Supreme Court is far more trusted than Congress (only 12% of Americans have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in it), newspapers (21%) or television news (16%).

But the public is also probably influenced by the relentless, often unfair, and highly partisan attacks on the Court and its members by both sides of the political divide. President Trump brazenly attacked the judiciary and the Supreme Court in particular. And his administration didn’t just criticize the Court when they disagreed with its rulings—they accused it of “betrayal”.

The left has been just as eager to bash the Court and just as unfair. Coverage of Justice Amy Coney Barrett was particularly misleading. The press jumped all over the fact that she was a “handmaid” in her church, with the Washington Post, for example, running the headline “Amy Coney Barrett served as a ‘handmaid’ in Christian group People of Praise.” Multiple media outlets inaccurately claimed or implied that Barrett’s religion was Margaret Atwood’s inspiration for the dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” even though those handmaids were slaves, while handmaid (a reference to being a handmaid to God) is actually a leadership position in Justice Barrett’s church.

More generally, the press has largely covered the Court as a purely political institution: conservative Justices mean conservative results. When Justice Barrett joined the Court, the press was full of dire predictions about how the Court would eviscerate people’s rights. Nonetheless, the Court made several liberal decisions, such as upholding The Affordable Care Act, expanding free speech rights for students, and allowing prosecutors to subpoena Donald Trump’s tax records. Undeterred, the press ran articles assuring the public that the conservative onslaught is coming any day now, such as Slate’s piece: “The Supreme Court’s Conservatives Have Laid the Groundwork for the Devastation to Come”.

The cynicism of the press came out in full bloom during the movement to pressure Justice Stephen Breyer to retire from the Court so he can be replaced by a Democratic President. Breyer has argued that Justices must be “loyal to the rule of law, not to the political party that helped to secure their appointment.” Undeterred by this noble sentiment, media outlets such as the New York Times ran editorials claiming that “it would be a travesty if the Supreme Court seat occupied by Justice Breyer was not filled by a replacement chosen by Democrats.”

No wonder the public is losing confidence in the Court. All they hear are claims that what matters are Justice’s political and religious views and predictions of imminent doom should the wrong party get to appoint the next Justice.

It is certainly true that a Justice’s political world view is an important factor in how he or she interprets the Constitution. But it is one of many factors and the Court takes its duty to uphold the rule of law seriously. During the Trump Presidency, the courts, especially the Supreme Court, were by far the most effective checks on his oversteps. Trump lost constantly in the courts on a broad variety of issues, despite the fact that the majority of the Justices are Republican appointees. And when Trump refused to concede his loss to President Joe Biden, the Supreme Court stood up to him again even though there are three Trump appointees on the Court.

In an era when Americans can’t agree on much, the Supreme Court remains an essential institution. Hopefully President Biden will get his chance to help shape the Court, but whether or not he does, it hurts everybody to undermine public confidence in such a vital institution.