America


Is Supreme Court Out of Step With America?


No, it’s just at odds with progressives who make this claim, says political scientist James Piereson.


A


claim often made in The New York Times, Washington Post, and other organs of progressive


opinion is that the Supreme Court is out of step with public opinion, and is deeply unpopular as a result. Is this really true, or is the court


merely out of step with the progressive doctrines of those who write for and read these particular publications? The latter assessment is more accu-


rate, judging by public opinion polls that portray a sharply polarized public on the key issues the court addresses, from abortion to voting rights to affir- mative action. Any decision the court takes on


these issues is likely to be rejected by half the voters — but accepted by the other half. The Supreme Court has found itself


out of step with public opinion from time to time over the course of its history. In the 1930s, a conservative court


struck down several popular New Deal programs and found itself in the crosshairs of attacks from President Franklin Roosevelt. The Warren Court, in place from


1953 to 1969, was controversial for its many liberal decisions, which changed the course of national politics in profound ways. The school desegregation deci-


sions, beginning with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, caused an uproar across the South. The court’s decisions in the 1960s defending the publication of obscene materials and banning prayer in pub- lic schools were bitterly opposed by


20 NEWSMAX | APRIL 2023


most voters and led some to call for the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren. The court’s reapportionment deci-


sions were nearly as unpopular, espe- cially in Southern states. Those rul- ings called for every state legislature to redraw legislative and congressional districts to conform with the court’s new “one man, one vote” policy requir- ing every district to be roughly equal in population. Many said that the court had gone


too far in entering such a highly politi- cized area. The opposition called forth by these


decisions paled in comparison to the violent confrontations that occurred as a result of the court’s decisions to require schools to bus students across district lines for purposes of racial integration. Violent demonstrations took place


in Boston, school buses were bombed outside Detroit, and heated protests


The court has frequently acted in defiance of public opinion. That was certainly true in the Roe decision in 1973, which overturned widely accepted abortion laws in nearly every state.


broke out in cities across the country where cross-district and metropol- itan-wide “busing” was ordered by the federal courts as fallout from the Brown decision. These were an inept and counter- productive series of decisions by the court; they provoked not only violence but also “white flight” from urban schools, leaving these schools more segregated than before. The court has frequently acted in


defiance of public opinion. That was cer- tainly true in the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, which overturned widely accepted abortion laws in nearly every state. This was also true, albeit to a


lesser extent, in regard to the court’s decisions overturning laws against homosexual conduct and homo- sexual marriages. These were not popular rulings, though they were generally accepted by those who opposed them. Much of the present controversy


has revolved around the abortion issue — a divisive subject from the day the court handed down Roe to the day it overturned it with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling last summer. According to Gallup polls, the pub-


lic has long been divided on the issue, with most voters rejecting extreme approaches on either side while adopt-


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