Views Of Supreme Court Decline In New Poll

Thursday, August 2nd 2007, 4:25 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Views of the Supreme Court dropped sharply in a six-month period that included decisions that upheld abortion restrictions, struck down school integration plans and chided inaction on global warming, according to a poll Thursday.

Fifty-seven percent view the court favorably, the poll by the Pew Research Center found. The number was the lowest for the court in the survey in two years and down from 72 percent in January.

The decline was largest among Democrats and independents, 17 points and 16 points respectively. Republicans' views of the court dropped by eight points since January, although seven in 10 Republicans view it favorably.

The court, though, still comes out far better than Congress or President Bush, who is viewed favorably by 29 percent of those surveyed.

Even with the decline, more people (37 percent) said they approve of recent court decisions than disapprove (27 percent). Republicans were almost twice as likely to approve of the rulings.

Forty-one percent said Bush's appointments of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito have not changed the court's ideology, while 36 percent say it has become more conservative.

Roberts obliquely addressed polls that assess the court's performance when he spoke in November about how lifetime appointments insulate judges from politics.

``Not a single person voted for me. If you don't like what I do, it's kind of too bad,'' he said. ``I'm not there to make judgments based on my personal policy positions.''

The survey was taken from July 25-29 and involved telephone interviews with 1,503 adults. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.