WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� About 2 in 3 Americans say they favor term limits or a mandatory retirement age for聽聽justices, according to a new poll that finds a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans saying they have 鈥渉ardly any鈥� confidence in the court.
The poll from聽聽finds 67% of Americans support a proposal to set a specific number of years that justices serve instead of life terms, including 82% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans. Views are similar about a requirement that justices retire by a specific age.
The poll was conducted just weeks after the high court issued high-profile rulings including聽听补苍诲听. The poll also shows聽聽than approve of the court鈥檚 abortion decision, with just over half saying the decision made them 鈥渁ngry鈥� or 鈥渟ad.鈥�
The court, which is now taking a summer break, will return to hearing cases in October with diminished confidence among Americans. Now 43% say they have hardly any confidence in the court, up from 27% three months ago.
Inez Parker of Currie, North Carolina, said she鈥檚 among those who strongly favor limits on justices鈥� service. 鈥淚 think some of those people have been up there too long. They don鈥檛 have new ideas. When you get a certain age and everything you get set in your ways just like I鈥檓 set in my ways,鈥� said the 84-year-old Democrat.
Parker said retired justices can 鈥渨ork in their garden, sit on the porch and fan flies or whatever they want to do.鈥�
The Constitution gives federal judges including Supreme Court justices life tenure, but there have been recent calls for change. A commission tasked by President Joe Biden with examining potential changes to the Supreme Court studied term limits among other issues. The commission聽聽and its聽聽over whether they believed Congress has the power to pass a law creating the equivalent of term limits.
Phil Boller, 90, of LaFollette, Tennessee, said he鈥檚 not totally opposed to setting a limit on years of service for justices. The Republican who worked in broadcasting and later owned his own lawn care business said that 鈥渂asically it鈥檚 worked the way it鈥檚 been going and I see see no reason to change that.鈥�
The oldest member of the current court is聽, 74, followed by Justice Samuel Alito, 72. But recent justices have served into their 80s. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg served until her聽. Justice Anthony Kennedy聽. And Justice Stephen Breyer just聽.
Ginsburg served for 27 years, Kennedy 30 years and Breyer nearly 28 years.
Four new members have joined the court in the last five years, bringing down the average age of the court鈥檚 members. Three justices are in their 60s: Chief Justice John Roberts, 67, and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, 68, and Elena Kagan, 62. The remaining justices are in their 50s. Neil Gorsuch is 54, Brett Kavanaugh 57, Amy Coney Barrett 50 and Ketanji Brown Jackson 51.
Another proposal Biden鈥檚 committee studied was increasing the number of justices on the court, and the poll shows that proposal evenly dividing Americans. Overall, 34% say they鈥檙e in favor, while 34% are opposed and 32% say they hold neither opinion. Democrats are more in favor than opposed, 52% to 14%, while Republicans are more opposed than in favor, 61% to 14%.
The poll also found increased dissatisfaction with the court since three months ago, before the court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a right to abortion.
In the April poll, conducted before a聽, 18% said they had a great deal of confidence, 54% said they had only some and 27% said they had hardly any. Now, 17% say they have a great deal of confidence, 39% only some and 43% hardly any.
Patrick Allen, a Democrat from Logan, Utah, is one of those with hardly any confidence in the court. Allen, 33, said he feels as though justices generally vote on issues based on the party of the president that appointed them. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e sticking more to their guns along the lines of their party instead of the Constitution,鈥� he said.
The poll shows the drop in confidence is concentrated among Democrats, adding to evidence that the court鈥檚 decision on abortion worsened and polarized already tenuous opinions of the court. A large partisan gap in views of the court that did not exist before the decision emerged; 64% of Democrats say they have hardly any confidence, up from 27% in April. Another 31% have only some and just 4% have a great deal of confidence 鈥� down from 17%.
Among Republicans, however, views of the court have improved. Now, 34% say they have a great deal of confidence, up from 21% in the earlier poll. An additional 47% have only some confidence and 18% hardly any.
Overall, more Americans disapprove than approve of the decision to overturn Roe, 53% to 30%; an additional 16% say they hold neither opinion. On that decision, too, there鈥檚 a large divide along party lines 鈥� 63% of Republicans approve, while 80% of Democrats disapprove.
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The poll of 1,085 adults was conducted July 14-17 using a sample drawn from NORC鈥檚 probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
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