Why Are Americans Losing Trust in the Supreme Court?

The New York Times reports a recent poll showing the Supreme Court’s approval rating at 44 percent. This represents one of the lowest numbers the justices have polled in recent years and is part of a generally downward slide since 2009. Over at least the previous twenty-five years the Court has consistently been one of the more popular institutions in the country. What’s been going on to change this?

A plausible answer is: partisanship. Polls show a widespread disgust with partisanship in Washington; Congress’s approval rating was at an all time low in May. Although the justices often are divided into left-right ideological blocs, those blocs have recently become identified in the public mind with the Democratic and Republican parties. That, combined with a set of cases that bring partisan issues to the fore, may be leading the public to see the Court as part of the same Washington politics it deplores.

One reason the justices did so well in the past is that they were typically seen as above politics. Not ideology, politics. The distinction matters. Ideology is principled, you believe in something. Politics, on the other hand, is seen these days as devoid of serious content.

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