The poll, conducted in mid-August by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, surveyed 1,100 registered voters who said they intend to vote in November. They were asked about adding new seats to the court, known as "court packing;" amending the U.S. Constitution to get rid of lifetime appointments; and Congress introducing a code of ethics for the nine justices.
Among the results, 59% oppose court packing; 52% said they oppose changing the Constitution; and 60% agreed that Congress introducing a code of ethics violates the separation of powers.
Democrats were livid before Dobbs
The survey was commissioned by First Liberty Institute to gauge public reaction to Democrats on Capitol Hill who are vowing to punish the right-leaning high court. Going back to the Trump administration through this summer, Democrats have been angered by rulings on abortion, Second Amendment rights, religious freedom, presidential immunity, and affirmative action.
The court upheld the Second Amendment right to carry a firearm outside the home in its New York gun club case in 2022. A second ruling in 2022 upheld the free exercise of religion in Carson v. Makin, and a 2023 ruling on behalf of a Christian web designer did the same.
During that same 2023 term, the high court also upended race-based admissions at colleges and universities in a case brought by Asians who applied to attend Harvard University.
Those key rulings on firearms, faith, and race were nothing compared to the Dobbs ruling two years ago, when the court reversed Democrats’ revered Roe v Wade abortion ruling in a landmark decision.
U.S. Supreme Court is 'envy of the world'
Pointing to the poll results, First Liberty attorney Jeremy Dys says the American public is "bothered” by Democrats’ attempts to change the U.S. Supreme. They don’t want anyone to “tinker” with a judiciary that has been the “envy of the world” going back to the country’s founding, he says.
"I go back to what Alexander Hamilton said in Federalist No. 78: that freedom has nothing to fear from an independent judiciary, but has everything to fear from a judiciary being joined with any of the other branches,” Dys tells AFN.
For the survey, the pollster posed its set of questions to a nearly-qual set of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Among that demographic, 62% were white and 51% were female.
Among other questions, 57% agreed the court’s judicial independence would be threatened by Congress passing ethics rules. In a related question, 63% said they oppose political attacks that question the integrity of the justices.
