A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Americans’ confidence in the Supreme Court has plummeted over the past twenty months, a period that began with former President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans installing a 6-6 conservative majority. 3 before the 2020 election and culminated last week with the leak of a draft opinion indicating that all five GOP-appointed justices plan to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The last time Yahoo News/YouGov asked about trust in the Court was in September 2020, a few days after the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and days before Trump nominated conservative Amy Coney Barrett to replace her.
At the time, 70% of registered voters said they had “some” (50%) or “a lot” (20%) of confidence in the Court, and 30% said they had “a little” (23%) or “ none” (7%).
But the new poll of 1,577 American adults, taken immediately after the leak, found that registered voters have become divided.
Today only half of voters still express some (37%) or a lot of (14%) trust in the Court, while the other half express little (24%) or none (26%). And among all Americans, unlike registered voters, the majority (53%) say they have little or no confidence in the Supreme Court (28%) or only a little (25%).
The new Yahoo News/YouGov poll suggests the leak itself may not be the Supreme Court’s main problem. For starters, Americans are divided on whether the leak is a “good thing” (30%), a “bad thing” (37%), or something they’re not sure about (33%).
Politics is clearly playing a role in that outcome. Prompted by the assumption that the leaker is “pro-choice” (38%) rather than “pro-life” (20%), something that is not yet known, many Republicans consider the leak bad (59%) and not good (19%) and many Democrats consider it good (50%) and not bad (20%).
As of September 2020, 29% of registered voters viewed the court as “conservative” (25%) or “very conservative” (4%). Today, that number is 44%, with almost six times as many voters as before saying “very conservative” (22%).
At the same time, trust in the Supreme Court has taken a hit across the board, falling 25 points among Democrats (to 39%), 20 points among independents (to 48%), and 11 points among Republicans (to 71). %).
Three-quarters of registered voters (74%) think the Court has become “too politicized” (up from 67% in September 2020), with roughly equal increases in perceptions of politicization among Democrats (from 69% to 75%) and Independents (from 70% to 76%) and Republicans (from 65% to 73%).
