A new survey from the Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel finds that the United States Supreme Court's favorability rating among voters has dropped significantly since issuing its controversial June decision to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationally.
According to the survey, released Sept. 1, the number of people who now view the court unfavorably has risen from 29% in 2020 to 48% now, and the number who view the court in a favorable light has decreased during the same period from 70% in 2020 to 49%.
The drop was most pronounced among those identifying as either Democrats or Democrat-leaning, going from 67% with a favorable view of the court in 2020 to 28% now, the lowest level of support for the court since 1987 when the organization started tracking the issue.
Republicans and Republican-leaning voters dropped just 2 percentage points in their favorable view of the court from 75% in 2020 to 73% now, according to the survey.
The Pew Research Center conducted the survey among 7,647 adults from Aug. 1-14 and has a margin of error of plus/minus 1.7 percentage points.
The American Trends Panel is a "nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. Panelists participate via self-administered web surveys," according to the organization.
The drop comes following a court term with several controversial rulings including the June 24 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade's constitutional right to an abortion, sending the issue back to the states.
A similar poll by Gallup in August found 55% of Americans disapprove of the job the court is doing, while 43% approve.
That poll was taken between July 5-26 with a sample of 1,013 adults and has a margin of error of plus/minus 4 percentage points, according to Gallup.
In that survey, just 13% of Democrats favored the court, which is the lowest approval rating by any one party since the survey's inception, with 74% of Republicans approving, according to the data.
In addition to the partisan divide on the court, the Pew survey found that 45% of Americans, and 64% of Democrats now believe the Supreme Court "has too much power."
That number increased 20 percentage points from August 2020 when just 25% of voters felt that way, and 15 points from January when the number was 30%, according to the survey.
More women than men hold an unfavorable view of the court, 51% to 46% of men, according to the data.