According to a new poll, 53 percent of Democrats currently support abolishing the Supreme Court completely. Likely their responses would be much different if liberal justices held the majority, as evidenced by their calls for President Joe Biden to “pack” the Supreme Court with more liberal and progressive justices in order to overrule the conservatives.
The poll, conducted by the Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports, found that of all likely voters, 53 percent oppose abolishing the high court. 64 percent of Democrats also support packing the Supreme Court by adding four additional justices to make 13 total. However, of all likely voters, 51 percent do not support adding the seats.
39 percent of Democrats supported a proposal which would allow for “a constitutional amendment that would give the United Nations the authority to reverse U.S. Supreme Court decisions that U.N. members believe violate human rights.” Just 29 percent of all likely voters and 17 percent of Republicans supported the proposal.
Despite Democrats’ disappointment, the poll also found that 52 percent of all likely voters had either a “very favorable” or “somewhat favorable” opinion of the Court.
By contrast, just 33 percent of Democrats had a very or somewhat favorable view of the Court. Fifty-six percent of Democrats agreed that the Court is “fundamentally racist, while 67 percent of Democrats said the Court is “fundamentally sexist.”
Just months ago, President Biden formed a commission to study potential reforms that could be made to the U.S. Supreme Court. The commission responded with a nearly 300-page report to the president taking no position on Court-packing.
National Review writes:
The report offered arguments for and against Court-packing, judicial term limits and other matters related to the high Court, but does not provide any recommendations.
“Given the size and nature of the Commission and the complexity of the issues addressed, individual members of the Commission would have written the Report with different emphases and approaches,” the report’s summary said.
“But the Commission submits this Report today in the belief that it represents a fair and constructive treatment of the complex and often highly controversial issues it was charged with examining.”
The report noted that “no serious person, in either major political party, suggests court packing as a means of overturning disliked Supreme Court decisions, whether the decision in question is Roe v. Wade or Citizens United.”