Poll: Roughly Half of Americans Say Supreme Court Rules on Trump Cases Purely on Personal Ideology
Is the Supreme Court becoming politicized? The American people certainly think so.
The job of the court is chiefly to interpret the United States Constitution.
Justices throughout history have had their own interpretation of that document and their own values that guide those interpretations, but that remains the central task.
The aim is not to inject one’s personal ideology into the highest court for a political agenda, but recent polling conducted by The Washington Post concludes almost half of Americans say that is happening.
The Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted from July 8-13 among 2,648 respondents found 46 percent think the court is ruling on President Donald Trump’s policies on ideological grounds.
Per The Hill, about 25 percent say that is not the case, while 28 percent had no opinion and 1 percent did not answer.
Moreover, 55 percent disapprove of the job the court is doing, with 41 percent approving.
That response was likely impacted by the June 30 decision in Trump v. Barbara.
The court ruled 6-3 against Trump on the matter of birthright citizenship.
On Jan. 20, 2025, the president’s first day back in office, Trump issued an executive order entitled, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” In interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, he ordered birthright citizenship to only apply to children with at least one parent who is a permanent resident or citizen.
The June 30 ruling struck down that order, allowing anyone born on American soil regardless of their parents’ status to be a citizen.
A separate report from The Hill noted that February saw the court strike down several tariffs instituted by the president, but the outlet also noted they’ve given him favorable rulings, like when they allowed him to fire Democrat Rebecca Slaughter from the Federal Trade Commission.
There are three liberal justices that tend to rule together, and they notably ruled against Trump in the recent birthright citizenship decision.
Newsweek, citing a Harvard Law Review study, found Kagan and Jackson agreed 84 percent of the time, Sotomayor and Jackson agreed 88 percent of the time, and Sotomayor and Kagan 93 percent of the time.
Sure, none of this is conclusive evidence of what respondents say, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett even said in 2021 that “this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks,” but the American people are entitled to scrutinize this branch as any other.
Court appointments are for life. There is no election. Only one justice has ever faced impeachment — Samuel Chase in 1804 — but he was acquitted.
We can take their position of security in two ways. On one hand, being insulated from the whims of politics and elections allows them to focus on constitutional matters exclusively, meaning it’s for the best. On the other hand, they can also become political, seeing pathways for removal as almost impossible.
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