May 26 (UPI) — The percentage of Americans who approve of the job the U.S. Supreme Court is doing plummeted 10 points in the weeks after a leaked draft opinion signaled that the court’s conservative majority intends to overturn Roe vs. Wade, a poll released Wednesday said.
According to the Marquette Law School Poll, approval for the Supreme Court dropped from a majority 54% in March to 44% in May. The disapproval rating increased from 45% to 55%.
The latest poll was conducted May 9-19, less than a week after the opinion leaked on May 3.
The draft opinion would overturn the landmark 1973 ruling that upheld a federal constitutional right to abortion. The high court voted 5-4 on the ruling, which hasn’t officially been released.
The Supreme Court’s approval rating has been on a mostly downward trajectory since September 2020, a month before the newest associate justice — Amy Coney Barrett — was sworn in.
Sixty-six percent of Americans approved of the Supreme Court in the September 2020 survey, followed by 60% in July 2021, 49% in September 2021, 54% in November 2021 and 52% in January.
The drop last September coincided with the court refusing to block enforcement of Texas’ abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy.
By party, approval for the Supreme Court dropped 23 percentage points among Democrats and 6 points among independents, while it increased 4 points with Republicans from March to May.
In the same poll, 31% of Americans favored overturning Roe vs. Wade and 69% opposed the move, figures that have largely held steady since at least September 2019. Fifty-one percent of Americans favored a 15-week ban on abortions and 49% opposed, while 30% favored Texas’s six-week ban and 70% opposed.
Marquette Law School surveyed 1,004 adults nationwide for the poll, which has a 3.9% margin of error.
