Half of Americans (50%) disapprove of the job the U.S. Supreme Court is doing, while slightly fewer (45%) approve. Although the high court’s approval rating is similar to what it has been in recent years, the current disapproval rating is at a new high. CONT. Justin McCarthy, Gallup Read more »
Americans Want Supreme Court to Turn Off Political Spending Spigot
Americans may be sharply divided on other issues, but they are united in their view of the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that unleashed a torrent of political spending: They hate it. In a new Bloomberg Politics national poll, 78 percent of those responding said the Citizens United ruling should be […] Read more »
Trust in Judicial Branch Sinks to New Low of 53%
Americans’ trust in the judicial branch of the federal government has fallen significantly in the past year, and now a record-low 53% say they have “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of trust in it. Trust in the executive and legislative branches also remains near historical lows, but both […] Read more »
How Jimmy Carter championed civil rights — and Ronald Reagan didn’t
… Carter is largely remembered as a feckless leader; even his own party tends to ignore his time in the White House. But he had a strong record on civil rights, and his work to advance the cause would have been far more consequential if his successor, Ronald Reagan, had […] Read more »
Rowan County, Ground Zero in Gay Marriage License Fight
The fight over gay marriage this week runs through Rowan County, Ky., (population 25,000), where the local clerk won’t issue marriage licenses, and a judge ordered her to be jailed. … The country is full of counties like Rowan — places that are the exceptions to the dominant local culture, […] Read more »
Book Revew: ‘Give Us the Ballot,’ by Ari Berman
… “The revolution of 1965 spawned an equally committed group of counterrevolutionaries,” Berman writes in “Give Us the Ballot.” “Since the V.R.A.’s passage, they have waged a decades-long campaign to restrict voting rights.” Berman argues that these counterrevolutionaries have “in recent years, controlled a majority on the Supreme Court” and […] Read more »