A growing number of Americans believe Supreme Court is motivated by politics, not law

[LetMyPeopleVote]

By a two-to-one margin, the public believes justices prioritize politics over the law. That's a disaster for the Supreme Court as an institution.

A growing number of Americans believe Supreme Court is motivated by politics, not law - MSNBC

apple.news/AUdAptmspSRm...

— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2025-07-17T19:36:00.176Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/growing-number-americans-believe-supreme-court-motivated-politics-not-rcna219426

The New York Times noted soon after that this has happened quite a bit lately.

In clearing the way for President Trump’s efforts to transform American government, the Supreme Court has issued a series of orders that often lacked a fundamental characteristic of most judicial work: an explanation of the court’s rationale. ... The court has allowed the administration to fire tens of thousands of government workers, discharge transgender troops, end protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants from war-torn countries and fundamentally shift power from Congress to the president — often with scant or no explanation of how it arrived at those results.

Citing research from Georgetown Law professor Stephen Vladeck, an expert on the high court’s “shadow docket,” the Times’ report noted that in the past 10 weeks alone, the Supreme Court has “granted emergency relief to the Trump administration without explanation seven times.”....

It was against this backdrop that the latest national poll from Quinnipiac University included an important question: “In general, do you think that the Supreme Court is mainly motivated by politics or mainly motivated by the law?”

The results were not close: 63% said the high court is principally focused on politics, while 30% said the justices prioritize the law.......

In 2021, a national Grinnell College/Selzer poll similarly found that nearly two-thirds of Americans agree that politics drives Supreme Court rulings. Grinnell College National Poll Director Peter Hanson said at the time, “This is a nightmare scenario for Chief Justice John Roberts, who has sought to protect the court’s reputation as an apolitical institution.”....

......The tarnishing of the Supreme Court — its credibility, its integrity and its reputation — has unfolded episodically over the course of several years. When far-right justices issue regressive and reactionary rulings, the problem gets worse. When far-right justices get caught up in indefensible ethics controversies, the problem gets worse. When far-right justices deliver political speeches, the problem gets worse. When far-right justices do favors for political allies, the problem gets worse. When far-right justices sit down with conservative media personalities, the problem gets worse.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Duh.

[markodochartaigh]

2. And was the

30% who think that the supremacist court prioritizes law composed mostly of people who are benefited by the supremacist court's biased rulings?

[VanceFan]

3. Really?

Gee, you think?

[TomSlick]

4. This should be alarming for the Court.

Of course, it won't be.

There aren't many things with which 63% of the population will agree, no matter how obvious.

[B.See]

5. No sht, Sherlock.

[erronis]

6. So nice of the patrician NYT to bring this to our attention now.

After doing every thing it could to install the felon in office again.

[Picaro]

7. Gee, ya think?

The utter irony of this piece declaring that John Roberts is concerned with the perception that the court is now primarily political is laughable. He has done more to quietly politicize the court with decisions like Citizens United, hamstringing the VRA, declaring that gerrymandering is non-justiciable (and many, many more) than any chief justice in the history of the US.

Now he is allowing the shadow docket to metastasize with one unexplained decision after another that gives Trump virtually unlimited power while unbalancing our entire system of government. These so called constitutional originalists have simply ignored the Constitution and will continue to do so. The decision that kept our country from prohibiting Trump from running for president a third time via the plain text of the 14th amendment came directly from Roberts.

The SC is clearly political. His concerns are absurd. He has been the architect of the politicization of the court. Most of the most recent decisions have no basis in precedent. The “conservative” majority has a reactionary, rightwing, authoritarian agenda and, in general, they are enacting it with no explanation or justification via the shadow docket.

[Paladin]

8. Golly gee, "growing number of Americans":

What were your first 100 hints that this was the case?

"Motivated by politics, not law"??? Well, knock me over with a feather!

[Lulu KC]

9. You mean?

Headline: Some People Seem to Be Waking Up FromLong Sleep.

[Godot51]

10. Mindless, heartless, soulless appointees

Today's court is the careful work of republican presidents, senate leaders, and conservative judicial "think tanks".

Political advantages. That's what they were put there for.

They are willing to sell their souls for the conservative cause, whatever that may be. Money, racial "purity", white supremacy, and the future one party, conservative only, dictatorship of the United States.

[Hekate]

11. The Sleazy Six are kind of hard to overlook by this time. Roberts can just go pound sand.

[slightlv]

12. There's that pesky 30%

You can always draw the right conclusions IMO when you see a 28-32% margin. That's the right wing percentage we always fight, no matter the subject.

[Cha]

13. It's Been So Obvious.. Glad they WOKE UP!

TY

[LetMyPeopleVote]

14. Supreme Court has become 'willing accomplices' to Trump's 'lawlessness': expert

These six assholes are destroying the constitution

Supreme Court has become 'willing accomplices' to Trump's 'lawlessness': expert

www.rawstory.com/trump-267329...

— [e-mail] (@blueangie.bsky.social) 2025-07-17T12:43:27.791Z

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2673290681/

President Donald Trump appears to have found six accomplices in his quest to dismantle the federal government, according to one lawyer.

Michael Waldman, President and CEO of The Brennan Center, wrote in an analysis that the conservative supermajority of the Supreme Court "are proving willing accomplices to a constitutional coup, all without leaving a trace." He cites the court's use of the so-called "shadow docket" in major cases as a prime example of its complicity.

Shadow docket is a term that refers to an order or motion from the Supreme Court in which the justices say they have not reached a final decision......

"This major ruling follows a disturbing recent pattern," Waldman argued. "In the past few months, the justices have used the shadow docket to let the president fire independent agency heads, in clear violation of 90 years of precedent. They’ve allowed the administration to deport people to countries where they never lived. And they’ve given effective approval to the Pentagon’s move to bar transgender people from serving in the military.".....

"This major ruling follows a disturbing recent pattern," Waldman argued. "In the past few months, the justices have used the shadow docket to let the president fire independent agency heads, in clear violation of 90 years of precedent. They’ve allowed the administration to deport people to countries where they never lived. And they’ve given effective approval to the Pentagon’s move to bar transgender people from serving in the military."

[TnDem]

15. Politics? Supreme Court?

Of course the Supreme Court is motivated by politics and always has been.

If that wasn't the case, why would either side care who nominated someone for an open seat?

In other news, "Water is wet....more at 11"

[republianmushroom]

16. You can add my voice to that, the Supreme Court is motivated by politics, not law.

[bronxiteforever]

17. The Court has to be reformed. It is an abomination

as presently constituted. It is radical, anti democratic and authoritarian friendly. Time for change assuming we get the power.

[4th]

18. It always was. Always.

The only thing that maybe has changed is peoples' level of awareness,