35% Give Supreme Court Positive Ratings

The U.S. Supreme Court is opening a new session with a new member, but opinions of the high court have changed little since May. Thirty-five percent (35%) rate the way the Supreme Court is doing its job as good or excellent.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters finds that just 19% rate the court's performance as poor. (To see survey question wording, click here.) It's important to note, however, that its newest member, Justice Elena Kagan, has not participated in any rulings yet.

Thirty-seven percent (37%) say the Supreme Court today is too liberal, while 22% say it is too conservative. Thirty-three percent (33%) think its makeup is about right.

Both Kagan and Justice Sonia Sotomayor who President Obama named to the court last year were viewed as ideological liberals by voters at the time of their Senate confirmation hearings. So it's no surprise that 46% of voters say justices nominated by Obama are too liberal, while only seven percent (7%) think they are too conservative. Forty-one percent (41%) say his nominees are about right ideologically.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on September 30-October 1, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.