Bessette/Pitney’s AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS: DELIBERATION, DEMOCRACY AND CITIZENSHIP reviews the idea of "deliberative democracy." Building on the book, this blog offers insights, analysis, and facts about recent events.
In our latest national NBC News poll — conducted after June’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade — the court’s favorability rating has sunk to 35% positive, 42% negative among registered voters.
And a combined 37% of voters say they have very little or no confidence in the nation’s highest court, versus 27% who have great or quite a bit of confidence in the institution.
That’s a reversal from our poll in 2019, when 39% said they had high confidence, while 17% had low confidence.
One more way to look at this image decline: In Jan. 2021 — so at the start of the 6-3 conservative court — almost every demographic group had a net-positive view of the court, including among Democrats, independents and Republicans.
Now? Democrats are at minus-51; independents are at minus-8; and Republicans are plus-36.
Chief Justice John Roberts has stressed the importance of the public’s trust and the dangers of inappropriate political influence.
And Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that the Supreme Court wouldn’t survive the “stench” of overturning Roe v. Wade.
