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

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— (@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.