More Americans say Supreme Court is too conservative: survey

More than 4 in 10 Americans believe the Supreme Court has become too conservative, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. 

The poll, published Wednesday, found that 43 percent of respondents believe that the Supreme Court is too conservative, while 13 percent of those surveyed think that the court is too liberal and 33 percent believe that the current ideology of the Supreme Court is just about right.

This is a change from a September 2021 Quinnipiac University poll, in which 34 percent thought the Supreme Court was too conservative, 34 percent thought it was about right and 19 percent thought it was too liberal.

Along political party lines, 80 percent of Democrat respondents now believe that the Supreme Court is too conservative, compared with 38 percent of independent respondents and 8 percent of Republicans.

In contrast, 25 percent of Republican respondents believe that the Supreme Court is too liberal, compared with 12 percent of independent respondents and 5 percent of Democrats.

By race, Black respondents were more likely to see the nation’s highest court as too conservative compared with white and Hispanic respondents. Younger respondents were also more likely to hold this view than older respondents.

The poll comes weeks after the Supreme Court struck down the use of race as a factor for college admissions, along with the Biden Administration’s proposed student debt relief initiative. 

The court last year also struck down Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision that gave women the constitutional right to an abortion. 

Three members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority were appointed by former President Trump, and the court’s series of controversial decisions in the past two years has spurred Democratic debates over proposals to expand the court or impose term limits.

A series of scandals centered on Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife have further stoked frustration on the left and prompted calls for legislation imposing ethics rules on the country’s highest court.

The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted from July 13 to July 17 with a total of 2,056 respondents participating in the survey. The poll’s margin of error was 2.3 percentage points.