Poll: Public is critical of Supreme Court, wants a younger and more moderate bench

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An already tumultuous political environment is being stirred up again, this time by the Supreme Court. Soon to be 90-year old Justice John Paul Stevens will be retiring at the end of June opening the door for President Obama’s second nomination in just his second year in office.

Two polls from Rasmussen Reports and Fox News indicate that Americans are both dissatisfied with the current makeup of the court and think it to be too liberal. Like David Souter before him the Stevens retirement won’t do much to shake up the ideological balance of the court. Both were liberal judges stepping down at a time with a Democratic President in office. Still it appears that most of the public would prefer a justice with more conservative or mainstream leanings.

According to the Fox poll 52% want a more conservative appointment against just 29% who’d like the next justice to be more liberal than the general makeup of the court. That reflects the general tone of the electorate as measured by Rasmussen where 39% of voters find the Supreme Court to be too liberal for their liking. One-quarter (25%) think it too conservative and another 27% believe the current ideological balance to be about right. The public is split on what route President Obama will take in deciding his nominee. 45% believe he’ll choose a judge that is too liberal for their liking but 41% think the new justice will be within acceptable parameters.

Not surprisingly there is a party divide on the topic with better than three-quarters of Republicans (76%) thinking the President’s choice will be too liberal and the same percentage of Democrats believing he’ll pick a judge that reflects mainstream values. Non-affiliated voters however lean more conservative on the topic with just 27% believing Obama will be appoint a moderate judge against 56% who suggest his nominee with lean too far to the left. The public perception of President Obama certainly affects this notion. While twice as many voters believe Supreme Court justices should be guided by what is written in the Constitution rather than rest upon their own laurels of fairness, justice and equality, by a 44-32% margin more voters think Obama holds the opposite view.

Voters express some measure of dissatisfaction with the overall job performance of the current Supreme Court. Again according to Rasmussen just 35% think the judicial branch is doing either a “good” or “excellent” job against 62% who would rate their performance as either “fair” or “poor”. Those holding strong opinions lean even heavier toward the negative. Just one in twenty (5%) think the court if doing an excellent job and 22% rate the current body as poor. Americans also believe mandatory age or term limits should be imposed to curb the influence, or perhaps improve the effectiveness, of the Supreme Court. The Fox survey finds that nearly two-thirds of voters (65%) want a mandatory retirement age for justices with only 30% approving of the current standard for lifetime appointments.

In the event that such a mandatory age was to be set however what would it be? Nearly half of poll responders (48%) liked the idea of a forced retirement falling between the 65-74 year old age brackets. An additional 16% believe 75-79 is the correct cap on a justice’s age. 10% believe a justice should be able to serve past the age of 80 against 12% who think they should be forced out of their position before they turn 65. Of course there are certain problems with age restrictions that have not been addressed by this sort of polling. Most notably an age cap would encourage Presidents to nominate younger judges who would be able to spend more years on the bench. If the current age was capped at 70, for instance, what would stop President Obama from backing a candidate under the age of 40 and neglect anyone over 50? Still the broader polling done by Rasmussen and Fox on the topic points to an electorate displeased by both the current ideological composition and function of the Supreme Court.

PHOTO CREDIT: ASSOCIATED PRESS / Charles Dharapak