Gallup: Disapproval for Supreme Court at highest level in decades

Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Americans' support for the U.S. Supreme Court has dwindled to a record low after the high court made some of the most consequential rulings in recent memory at the end of its term last month.

According to a Gallup poll on Tuesday, overall approval for the Supreme Court is at 43% -- which is basically unchanged from a year ago -- and disapproval is 55%.

A year ago, disapproval was at 53% and approval was 40%. According to Gallup figures, the 55% disapproval is the highest for the court going back more than 20 years.

While the difference between the figures isn't substantial, the partisan feelings on the issue most certainly is.

According to the survey, just 13% of Democratic respondents said they approve of the job the high court is doing. That figure is 74% among Republicans and 40% among independents.

Republican approval for the conservative-majority court leaped by almost 30 points compared to a year ago, while Democratic approval plummeted 23 points.

The poll was taken at the end of the court's term in June. Toward the end of the term, the court made multiple rulings that were highly controversial among the American public -- most notably its move to overturn legalized abortion nationwide, which was established by the court's landmark ruling in 1973 in Roe vs. Wade.

Other decisions that met with significant criticism include striking down a gun safety law in New York, restricting the government's authority to limit greenhouse gases and allowing a school teacher to pray on school grounds.

By gender, the Gallup survey found that almost two-thirds of women and almost half of men disapprove of the Supreme Court's performance. It also found that older Americans over 50 were more supportive of the high court than younger Americans.

Since late 2020, conservatives have held a 6-3 advantage on the court. Progressive Justice Stephen Breyer retired at the end of the term and was succeeded by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman ever to ascend to the high court bench.

Gallup polled roughly 1,000 adults nationwide for the survey, which has a margin of error of 4 points.