Poll Indicates Nearly Half of Americans View Supreme Court Rulings as Politically Driven

Why it matters locally: The ongoing discussions around tariffs and trade policies, potentially influenced by Supreme Court decisions, could directly affect California's significant import and export industries, which are crucial to the state's economy. Changes to these tariffs could impact manufacturing, agriculture, and technology sectors within California.

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WASHINGTON – Nearly half of Americans believe the Supreme Court bases its decisions on political ideology rather than legal principles, according to a new Washington Post-Ipsos poll. The survey found 46% of respondents held this view regarding the court's rulings on President Donald Trump's policies, while 25% believed the decisions were based on law. The poll, conducted this month, also showed 55% of Americans disapprove of the Supreme Court's job performance, with 41% approving. These approval ratings are among the lowest recorded in recent history, though they do not reach the 58% disapproval observed in 2022 by Gallup. In other court-related news, the Trump administration notified the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit of its intent to appeal a decision halting President Trump's ban on transgender troops. The administration requested the circuit court not finalize its ruling that the ban likely violated constitutional rights. Attorneys for the government referenced the Supreme Court's prior intervention in a related case, where a majority allowed the ban to be enforced amidst litigation. If the D.C. Circuit proceeds, the administration may ask the Supreme Court to pause the ruling's implementation. Separately, the Trump administration is working to establish new tariffs after a February Supreme Court ruling limited earlier tariff imposition under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Specifically, the court held that President Trump lacked the authority to impose tariffs under this law. Current tariffs, implemented under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, are set to expire on July 24 unless Congress extends them. Facing unlikely congressional extension, the administration is now utilizing Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to implement new tariffs. Section 301 permits the president to impose tariffs against countries engaged in 'unjustifiable,' 'unreasonable,' or 'discriminatory' trade practices. Analysts anticipate the administration will replace the expiring Section 122 tariffs with Section 301 tariffs by the deadline. In personnel news, Johnny Brown, father of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, died Wednesday at 80. Justice Jackson has previously cited her father, a former lead lawyer for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, as an influence on her legal career. The Supreme Court released its first of three summer order lists this morning at 9:30 a.m. EDT. Order lists typically address administrative matters, such as granting or denying cert petitions and other procedural rulings. Throughout its history, the Supreme Court has made revisions to opinions after their initial release. These changes, which have occurred since the court's early days, range from minor grammatical corrections to more substantive alterations. The Reporter of Decisions' office manages this process, compiling suggested changes and submitting them to the authoring justice for approval. Since 1994, substantive revisions reportedly require approval from the full court. The court began annotating slip opinions in 2015 to indicate where changes have been made. This term, nine cases have seen revisions as of July 14. One notable change in *Trump v. Barbara* involved correcting the attribution of a quote from "Senator Reverdy Williams" to "Senator George Williams" in a dissent.