Never\u00a0in recent history, perhaps,\u00a0have\u00a0so many\u00a0Americans viewed the Supreme Court as fundamentally partisan.
\nPublic approval of the nine-justice panel stands near historic lows.\u00a0Declining faith in the institution seems rooted in a growing concern\u00a0that the high court\u00a0is deciding cases\u00a0on politics, rather than\u00a0law.\u00a0In one recent poll,\u00a0a majority of\u2002Americans\u2002opined\u00a0that\u00a0Supreme Court justices\u00a0let partisan views influence major rulings.
\nThree quarters of Republicans approve of the high court\u2019s\u00a0recent job performance. But Democrats\u2019\u00a0support\u00a0has\u2002plummeted\u2002to 13 percent, and more than half the nation overall disapproves of how the court is doing its job.
\nPublic support for the high court sank swiftly last summer in response to Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization, a landmark ruling that revoked a constitutional right to abortion. The decision delighted many conservatives but defied a large majority of Americans who\u00a0believe abortion should be legal.
\nYet, partisan anger runs deeper than Dobbs. Liberals are fuming about a confluence of lucky timing and political maneuvering that enabled a Republican-controlled Senate to approve three conservative justices in four years, knocking the panel out of synch with the American public.
\nJudged by last year\u2019s opinions, the current court is the most conservative in nearly a century, at a time when a majority of Americans are voting Democratic in most elections. Democrats say the court no longer mirrors society, a disconnect that spans politics and religion. All six of the court\u2019s conservatives\u00a0were raised\u2002Catholic, a faith that claims roughly one-fifth of the U.S. population.
\nRepublicans counter that the high court\u2019s job is to serve the Constitution, not to please the public.<\/p>\n