The Supreme Court poll comes after a string of contentious rulings by the conservative-leaning court in late August and early September, most recently when the court ruled 5-4 not to strike down Texas’ near-total ban on abortion on technical grounds, leaving the controversial law in effect. The court also struck down the Biden administration’s eviction moratorium and reinstated the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy, which requires asylum seekers to stay on the other side of the border while they wait for their cases to be heard. Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Stephen Breyer and Clarence Thomas have all responded to criticisms that the court is too “political” in recent weeks, insisting their decisions are based on the law and justices are not, as Barrett put it, “partisan hacks.” “When a judge puts on that robe, he’s not a junior-league politician,” Breyer said in a recent interview with the Washington Post, even as he acknowledged the court’s “connections with politics” mean that’s “a pretty hard message to get across.”
The Supreme Court will take up several major cases in its next term that starts in October, most notably a challenge to Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban that could potentially overturn Roe v. Wade. The Marquette poll found only 20% support overturning Roe, which guaranteed the right to an abortion, while 50% oppose it, though a slight 40% plurality support upholding Mississippi’s 15-week ban while 34% want it overturned. The court will also take up cases on gun rights and the right to concealed carry, as well as whether public funding should be used to cover financial aid for religious schools. The poll found that a 44% plurality would support a Supreme Court ruling that found the Second Amendment “protects the right to carry a gun outside the home,” while a 34% plurality believe a state shouldn’t deny financial aid for religious schools.
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Supreme Court’s Approval Rate Plunges Amid Abortion Debate, Poll Finds | Forbes