Dan MorrisonUSA TODAY
WASHINGTON – Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of reforming the Supreme Court along lines proposed by President Joe Biden, even as approval for the high court is marked by a sharp political divide, according to a new USA TODAY-Ipsos election year poll.
A large majority – 76% of Americans – support a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court, according to the poll. The result comes after more than a year of revelations that Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose receiving millons of dollars' worth of free luxury trips and other gifts.
A code of conduct had the support of 70% of Republicans, 76% of independents and 89% of Democrats.
The poll comes as the Supreme Court stands smack in the middle of the 2024 presidential campaign and is a top election issue for large numbers of voters – especially Democrats.
“Unfortunately, a majority of the country sees the court as a political pawn,” said Mallory Newall, vice president for public affairs at Ipsos.
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On the question of whether the justices make decisions based on the law or their partisan political views, 65% of Democrats said politics drove the court, while 51% of independents and just 26% of Republicans agreed.
"I'm not favorable for the Supreme Court right now," said Ken Doepker, 67, a former paper mill worker in Wisconsin who took part in the poll. "There shouldn't be conservative justices and liberal justices. They should just go according to the law."
Recent decisions driving opinions of court
Last month, the court’s conservative majority granted Republican nominee Donald Trump and future presidents broad immunity from prosecution for acts committed in office, potentially sinking Trump’s historic New York hush money conviction and pending cases stemming from his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
In the wake of the immunity decision, some 70% of Americans favor a constitutional amendment stating that no person – including the president – is above the law, according to the poll, with 54% of Republicans joining 72% of independents and 89% of Democrats.
A smaller majority, 63%, supported enacting an 18-year term limit for Supreme Court justices – who enjoy lifetime appointments – with a bare 51% of Republicans in favor along with 61% of independents and a whopping 83% of Democrats.
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Despite bipartisan support on these questions, views of the court itself were sharply divided.
Some 66% of Republicans had a “very favorable” or “somewhat favorable” view of the high court, while 71% of Democrats had a “very unfavorable” or “somewhat unfavorable” opinion. More independents had an unfavorable opinion of the court by a margin of 45% to 38%. The poll was conducted from Aug. 2 to 4, surveyed 1,024 adults and had a margin of error of 3.2%.
Reforms a 'threat' when linked to Biden
Support for court reforms fragmented when pollsters directly linked them to President Biden, who formally proposed an overhaul after the immunity decision.
Some 58% of Republicans considered Biden’s long-shot proposal to impose term limits and enact a binding code of conduct on the high court a “major threat to democracy,” compared with 26% of independents and just 10% of Democrats.
Meanwhile, large majorities of Democrats considered the court’s immunity ruling, the 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, and former president Trump’s recent eyebrow-raising comments to a Florida audience as a “major threat to democracy,” all subjects that barely registered as threats with Republicans.
(In late July, Trump told the crowd at an event called the Believers’ Summit that if Christians voted for him, "in four years, you don't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good, you're not gonna have to vote." Vice President Kamala Harris, who is neck-and-neck with Trump in national polls as they compete to become the next president, called it a "promise to end democracy.")
Concern about Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito's wives
The poll's code of conduct question touched on recent controversies involving the wives of two conservative justices. Thomas' wife, Virginia "Ginny" Thomas, was involved in the "Stop the Steal" movement while the court was deciding whether to rule on a Congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Justice Samuel Alito's wife, Martha-Ann Alito, raised flags associated with the election denial movement outside their homes in Virginia and New Jersey.
The question asked if respondents supported "establishing a binding code of conduct for Supreme Court justices requiring disclosure of gifts, non-involvement in political activity, and to remove themselves from hearing cases where they or their spouses have a conflict of interest." Overall, 76% of respondents said yes.
A key goal for progressives, expanding the number of justices from nine to 15 – which Biden has not proposed – was a dud. Just 38% of Americans were in support: 20% of Republicans, 40% of independents, and 62% of Democrats.
Justice Thomas takes a hit
While some individual justices have seen their approval ratings fall since a similar poll in 2022, none has suffered as much as Thomas, the court’s longest-serving justice.
A bare 50% of Republicans had a favorable view of the conservative judicial hero, compared with just 9% of Democrats and 27% of independents. Among Democrats, 72% viewed Thomas unfavorably, an opinion shared by 41% of independents.
Only two years ago, 56% of Republicans, 27% of Democrats and 32% of independents had favorable views of Thomas.
On Monday, Senate Finance Committee Chair Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the justice had – after already revising his financial disclosure forms to reflect decades of free luxury trips he’d enjoyed courtesy of real estate billionaire Harlan Crowe – still failed to disclose additional travel.
"I think for sure there should be a code of conduct," Doepker, a Republican from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, said in an interview. "For me, what it's about is not taking favors. You should not be taking anything from anybody."
Revelations of Thomas’ undisclosed free vacations, a private loan for a luxury RV, and other gifts, pushed Chief Justice John Roberts last year to institute the court’s first code of conduct. The code has no enforcement mechanism.
