Supreme Court's Approval Rating Now Just 44%

The public is more suspicious than ever of the Supreme Court. In a new New York Times/CBS poll, just 44% said they approved of the job the court was doing. The drop continues a big long-term decline: from 66% in the late 1980s to about 50% by 2000. Moreover, a sizable 60% think the Constitution got it wrong by giving the justices lifetime terms. It's too much power, they say.

"The results of this and other recent polls call into question two pieces of conventional wisdom," says one political scientist: First, that the court's approval is largely stable, and second, that it's consistently higher than the other branches of government. A recent Gallup poll has President Obama's approval rating at 47%, though more actively disapprove of the president than disapprove of the court. The same poll also concluded that a large majority want the court to strike down ObamaCare. (More US Supreme Court stories.)