New poll shows Supreme Court approval rating is on the rise

The Supreme Court’s approval rating is on the rise, according to a new poll.

The Marquette University Law School poll, released Wednesday, found that 47 percent of Americans said they either “strongly” or “somewhat” approve of “the way the Supreme Court is handling its job” in March, up from 40 percent the previous month. 

The upward tick in approval for the nation’s highest court comes despite it tackling controversial issues, including access to abortion pills and presidential immunity. 

In late February, the Supreme Court decided to take on the question of whether former President Trump can be criminally prosecuted for efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

In the new Marquette Law School poll, 56 percent of Americans said they believe the former president should not be immune from criminal prosecution due to official acts. 

The court also heard arguments late in March about whether federal regulators overstepped their authority by loosening restrictions to make mifepristone, one of the two pills used in the most common type of abortion in the nation, easier to access.

Sixty percent of participants in the poll said the court should overturn a lower court’s ruling and maintain the current level of access to mifepristone.

Despite the rise in job approval for the Supreme Court, only about 30 percent of Americans surveyed in the poll said they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the court. Thirty-seven percent said they had “some” confidence in it, while 23 percent said they had “very little” and 10 percent said they had “none at all.”

The Supreme Court has also recently faced controversy following reports of undisclosed luxury trips and gifts involving multiple justices, raising interest in congressional oversight of justices’ behavior.

Two of the most notable reports, both from ProPublica, reported that Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose travel and other financial ties with wealthy conservative donors and that Justice Samuel Alito accepted a flight on the private jet of billionaire Paul Singer, also without reporting the trip on his financial disclosures.

The Marquette poll was conducted between March 18-28 with 1,000 adults. It had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.