Forty-three percent of U.S. voters said the Supreme Court is politically biased, according to a new American Barometer poll that comes as confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh began Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
The survey, conducted last week by Hill.TV and the HarrisX polling company, found that 24 percent of Americans said the high court was too conservative, while 19 percent said it was too liberal. Thirty percent of respondents said the Supreme Court is “just about right,” with 27 percent saying they were unsure.
The poll results come as the Senate Judiciary Committee started a multi-day hearing for Kavanaugh, who was nominated by President Trump in July to succeed now-former Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Since Democrats are in the minority, they are unable to block Kavanaugh’s confirmation without help from GOP senators.
Senate Republicans have voiced strong support for the nominee, and Democrats plan to press him on divisive issues such as reproductive health and executive authority.
Campaign reporter Reid Wilson told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha that the contentious hearings are a sign of the increasingly political nature of the courts.
“We’re going to see an increasing politicization of the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary, and we’ve seen this over a long period of time,” Wilson, who’s a reporter for The Hill, said on “What America’s Thinking.”
The American Barometer survey was conducted Aug. 31 through Sept. 1 among 1,000 registered voters. The sampling margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
— Julia Manchester
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