Public trust in our judicial branch in the U.S. is on the decline. In 2022, only 25 percent of U.S. adults said they had a lot of confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court, down from 36 percent in 2021 and five percentage points lower than the previous low, recorded in 2014. The country's highest court has come under attack by many who say it has become politicized, with justices making decisions based on their own views rather than on the law and the Constitution.
The U.S. Supreme Court has nine justices, appointed for life by the president with the approval of the Senate. These appointments have become contentious in recent years. Trump's three nominees were only narrowly confirmed by the Senate, as was Biden's nominee. In the past, nominees enjoyed much greater support from both parties.
The ultraconservative evangelical section of the population has been working for decades to put more Supreme Court justices on the bench who agree with their worldviews. In 2022, in a stunning decision, the court's new 6-3 conservative majority overturned the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling, which protected women's right to make decisions about their own bodies, including having an abortion.
Shortly after that ruling, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the court should reconsider other past Supreme Court rulings, including those protecting gay rights and contraception rights, which he called "demonstrably erroneous decisions."
The principle of separation of church and state is firmly anchored in our Constitution. The religious right, however, is enjoying increased support from the Supreme Court in their mission to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us. Several recent decisions are evidence of this. In 2022, for example, the court ruled that a football coach at a public high school had the right to hold prayers with his team on the football field, even though some parents had said that their children felt under pressure to take part in the prayers.
In another ruling, the court said that the city of Boston had violated the right to freedom of speech by rejecting an application from a conservative group to fly a flag with a cross on it in front of City Hall. Boston had argued that part of the First Amendment ensures government neutrality to religion.
The Supreme Court is set to rule on other topics in the near future, such as voting rights, the teaching of history in schools, and the banning of certain books in libraries. With the conservative bias of the current court, and the number of justices who are young enough to serve on it for decades to come, we face years of rulings that could change society as we know it.