Amid waning confidence with the government, Americans are okay with the Supreme Court

Issues like health care, the economy and other issues are more of a concern to voters than the performance of the Supreme Court.

Full transcript: 

Scott Rasmussen  0:08  

Good morning, Scott Rasmussen here. Hope you had a great weekend and welcome to my podcast, Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. None of us can forget the intense and toxic political debate that surrounded the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. It was truly unlike anything we've seen before. And unfortunately, we're probably going to see more of it in the future. But you know, despite that passion despite that excitement, some polling that I did and talked about on Friday show that only about half of all voters say that the Supreme Court nomination process is a very important voting issue. In fact, among six issues that we asked about the Supreme Court nominations, ranked six out of six. 

Scott Rasmussen  0:59  

People were more concerned about things like healthcare or the economy or civil rights or law and order. All of those topics, concern about Supreme Court nominations as a voting issue. Today's number helps explain why that's the case, the number is 52. 52% of voters nationwide, approve of the way the Supreme Court is doing its job. Now, this is a number. You know, it's been actually fairly consistent for a very long time. And I'm going to talk about that in the B block. And also talk about just how much politically active people misunderstand public opinion concerning the Supreme Court. So I'll be talking about that in the B block. And while you're waiting, you might want to take a moment, share this podcast with your friends. And subscribe to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day.

Scott Rasmussen  1:58  

Welcome back to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day, I'm Scott, the number today is 52. 52% of voters nationwide, say they approve of the way the Supreme Court is performing its role. Just 31% disapprove, you know, in the political world that we live in. Those are remarkably good numbers. Polling I've done over the years, finds that the Supreme Court is one of the few institutions in our political system that doesn't have too much power. Something else in the data today, a plurality of voters 30% say the ideological balance of the court is about right. Now, it's a narrow plurality, nearly as many say that the court is too conservative and a somewhat smaller number say it's too liberal. When you begin to look at the partisan breakdown. It's kind of what you'd expect that Republicans tend to believe the court is too liberal, Democrats say it's too conservative. And when you talk to independent voters, seven out of 10 say it's either about right or they're not really sure. So you know, you have an institution that people generally are okay with a 52% approval rating is pretty good. There's not a lot of intense hatred of it. And people think the ideological balance is pretty good. And, you know, again, people on both sides of that, but this creates an environment where for most voters, the Supreme Court nomination process is not going to be the deciding issue in the election. And one of the funniest things for me to watch as a pollster over the last several decades, has been the way that political elites tend to think, Wow, this court decision is going to destroy the reputation of the court. It never happens and when there is movement, it's kind of temporary. 

Scott Rasmussen  3:54  

So way back in the 1990s when Bill Clinton was president, about half of all voters very similar to numbers we have today approved of the way the Supreme Court did its job. Then we had the election of George W. Bush and a big Supreme Court decision that finalized that election. And many commentators said, wow, this is going to destroy the legitimacy of the Court. Didn't happen. Number stayed about the same now, you know, when Bush was president, Republicans were a little more confident in the Court when, you know, and Democrats became a little less so, but the overall numbers didn't change all that much. And we've seen this same thing play out again and again. You know, in rulings where the Supreme Court has upheld the Second Amendment rights to gun ownership. Some activists say this is going to destroy the Court, people will never trust it anymore. When there was a hearing on Obamacare, and many observers of that said, Oh my gosh, the Supreme Court is going to overturn Obamacare.

Scott Rasmussen  5:00  

And this will destroy the legitimacy of the Court. Well, actually the opposite happened at that moment in time. Trust in the Supreme Court went way up. When the Court eventually ruled to uphold the constitutionality of Obamacare. It bounced back down to the same levels we saw, heard the same thing about Brett Kavanaugh. Boy, you know, this confirmation battle is going to change the public perception of the Court. And it didn't, you know, approval of the Supreme Court was pretty much the same before and after the Kavanaugh hearings. And so, you know, you get to a situation, many ... upset by the recent DACA ruling, but it doesn't change things all that much. And the numbers you know, they're pretty consistent across society, but there are some notable differences. For example, 62% of Hispanic voters right now say they approve of the way the Supreme Court is doing its job that may have to do with the recent DACA ruling 53% of White voters agree. And among Black voters, it's a little bit smaller 39% approve 44% do not. But broadly speaking, what we have in the Supreme Court is an institution that Americans tend to trust, they tend to think it's doing an okay job. And yes, it's a narrowly divided five to four Court. But most Americans aren't seeing that as the decisive issue. Now, I think it all has to do with comparisons.

Scott Rasmussen  6:39  

The Supreme Court is far from perfect, but compared to Congress, people are saying, Wow, that's pretty good. At least they give a lot of thought and reason to their decisions compared to the White House and it's true whether it's Barack Obama living in the White House or Donald Trump or perhaps next year, Joe Biden, who knows who it will be. But, again, the Supreme Court looks far more deliberative and thoughtful and neutral. Obviously, there's there's divisions. Obviously, there are political implications to the court's rulings. But there is a sense of continuity with our history. And I think that's what people who are on the inside miss. You know, they're so obsessed with. Wow, what did Roberts do here? And you know, Conservatives are saying he abandoned us, how dare he. But the reality is, for most Americans, they look at the Supreme Court rulings, may not like a particular ruling, but they accept it, and then they move on. I'll be back with some closing thoughts in the C block right after this.

Scott Rasmussen  7:48  

Welcome back to the C block of Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day. I'm Scott and today's number 52. 52% of voters nationwide say they approve of the Supreme Court is doing its job and just 31% disapprove, those are great ratings in today's political environment. On top of that, I mentioned that, you know, unbalanced people tend to think the the ideological mix on the Court isn't too far off maybe, you know, a slightly larger number think it's too conservative than too liberal but a plurality are saying no, it's about right. So you've got this situation where people are generally happy with the Court, generally happy with the political environment. They're not treating it as a major voting issue. That's not as important as many other issues that are out there to the average voter. And then you've got these inside activists who are who are convinced that control of the Supreme Court is the most important thing that can possibly happen, and let's face it, appointing a Supreme Court justice is one of the most powerful things a President can do. It's a big part of his lasting legacy. 

Scott Rasmussen  9:01  

But I think the difference is that most Americans still continue to look at the Court as more of a judicial proceeding rather than a political branch. And on top of that, you know, I think the deeper thing that we learned from this is that people who are really obsessed with politics, people who are living and breathing politics everyday, and especially the professional activists who are out there, they tend to think everybody follows the news the way they do, they tend to think that everybody is passionate about these issues. And they, they assume that the minute you mentioned a certain chief justice or a certain other justice or a particular Court ruling, you'll know what they're talking about. And for most Americans, that's simply not the case. For most voters the Supreme Court is an important part of our constitutional structure. It is defending the Constitution. Again, activists will argue whether they're defending it or destroying it, but to most people, they are making rulings based largely on the Constitution. The Constitution is a revered document. People embrace the founding ideals of freedom, equality and self governance. And when they see the behavior of partisan activist when they see the behavior of Congress when they see the behavior of the president in the executive branch, for a lot of people, the answer is thank God we have the Supreme Court. I'll be back with another number of the day tomorrow morning. Look forward to chatting with you then. And in the meantime, please share this podcast with your friends and subscribe to Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day.