Supreme Court's Popularity Drops in New Poll

The U.S. Supreme Court has been in the news in recent days after major decisions on same-sex marriage, voting rights and affirmative action -- but a new poll finds the highest courts prestige is slipping with likely voters.

Rasmussen Reports released a poll on Monday which shows only 8 percent think the Supreme Court is doing an excellent job while 20 percent think the justices are doing a good job. But 30 percent think the Supreme Court is doing a poor job and 39 percent think it is only doing a fair job. In the nine years Rasmussen has been polling on how voters evaluate the job the Supreme Court is doing, this is the highest percentage who think it is doing a poor job.

After last weeks rulings, including deciding that the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was unconstitutional, liberal voters generally hold the Supreme Court in higher esteem than moderates and conservatives. While 46 percent of liberals think the Supreme Court is doing an excellent or a good job, only 30 percent of moderates and 16 percent of conservative feel the same way.

Rasmussen Reports pointed toward the Supreme Courts declining approval in recent years. In 2009, 48 percent of voters thought the Supreme Court was doing an excellent or good job. That included 51 percent of moderates, 48 percent of conservatives and 46 percent of liberals.

Voters remain split on how they view the Supreme Court, with 39 percent insisting it is too liberal and 24 percent thinking it is too conservative.

The poll of 1,000 likely voters was taken from June 28-29 and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.