Poll: SCOTUS approval drops
Approval of the U.S. Supreme Court has dropped to its second-lowest rating ever recorded, according to a new Gallup poll.
In fact, only 46 percent of respondents said they approved of the high court, while 40 percent disapproved. The approval rating is a drop of 15 points since a recent high of 61 percent in 2009. The lowest approval recorded by Gallup was in 2005, at 42 percent.
Meanwhile, trust in the Supreme Court has tied record lows for the institution set in 1976. Only 63 percent of Americans trust the Supreme Court a “great deal” or a “fair amount.” (Of those 37% who don't trust SCOTUS, 31 out of the 37% think they are too liberal - see below)
“The drop in Supreme Court approval in the latest poll could be a result of the broader decline in Americans’ trust in government in general, rather than a response to anything the court has done recently, because the court has been out of session since early summer,” writes Gallup in its analysis of the poll.
There appears to be little partisan difference regarding approval for the Supreme Court — Republicans, Democrats and independents approve of the Supreme Court 50 percent, 46 percent and 44 percent, respectively.
A plurality of respondents — 42 percent — said the Supreme Court is “just about right” from an ideological standpoint, while 31 percent think the court is too liberal and 20 percent believe it’s too conservative. 
The Gallup poll was conducted Sept. 8-11, with a random sample of 1,017 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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