The Supreme Court's job approval rating among Republicans has grown during the past two months, while Democrats and independents disapprove of the nine justices, a new poll found.
The latest Marquette Law School (MLS) Poll was conducted a week following the leak of a draft opinion that suggested the Supreme Court might be prepared to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide.
Republicans gave the high court a 68% approval in the new MLS survey, up from 64% in March.
Overall, 44% of respondents said they approved of the job the Supreme Court was doing — the first sub-50% rating the court has received since 2017 — with 55% disapproving.
As recently as July 2021, the court had a 60% job approval rating.
Democrats, nearly half (49%) of whom in March approved of the job the justices were doing, disapproved of the court in the new poll 73% to 26%.
That meant there was a 42-percentage point gap in approval between Republicans and Democrats in May, compared to a gap of 15 points in March.
Independents also expressed disapproval, 59% to 38%. That only changed slightly from March, when 44% of independents approved and 53% disapproved.
Based on ideology, very conservative (75%) and somewhat conservative (72%) respondents said they approved of the job the Supreme Court was doing, the new MLS poll found.
Moderates (36%), somewhat liberal (28%) and very liberal (9%) offered much less approval.
In March, 58% of moderates said they approved of the job the justices were doing.
The MLS Poll found that the public's opinion on overturning Roe v. Wade has not changed in the wake of the leaked draft opinion.
In March, 32% favored overturning Roe, compared to 31% in May.
A majority (51%) of respondents favor upholding a 15-week ban on abortion, the MLS Poll found.
A large majority (69%) of respondents favor the 2015 Supreme Court decision that ruled the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage, while 31% oppose that ruling.
A total of 66% of respondents said they favor the belief that the Second Amendment protects the right to possess a gun outside the home. The poll was taken before mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas.
The latest Marquette Law School Poll was conducted May 9-19 among 1,004 adults nationwide. It has a margin of error of +/-3.9 percentage points.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.