Just how out of step is SCOTUS?

A claim often made in the pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, and other organs of progressive opinion is that the Supreme Court, through its recent decisions, 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 accurate, judging by public opinion polls that portray a sharply polarized public on the key issues the Court addresses, from abortion to voting rights to affirmative action. Any decision the Court takes on these issues is likely to be rejected by half the voters—but accepted by the other half. …

Much of the present controversy has revolved around the abortion issue—a divisive subject from the day the Court handed down Roe in 1973 to the day it overturned it, with the Dobbs ruling, last summer. Since the 1980s, the Republican Party has included a plank in its platform calling for Roe’s reversal, while Democrats have called for upholding and extending it. According to Gallup polls, the public has long been divided on the issue, with most voters rejecting extreme approaches on either side while adopting nuanced views that abortion should be legal under some circumstances but illegal in others. The Court in 1973 declared (in opposition to public opinion) that abortion was a constitutional right but decided last year (in the face of divided opinion) to throw the issue back to the states, where it will be negotiated and resolved through elections. This was controversial, as it was bound to be, but it is not clear why the Dobbs decision should be attacked as “undemocratic” or contrary to public opinion.

[This argument comes from the same intellectual precincts as claims of being on “the right/wrong side of history,” as though they are clairvoyants and have already read historian work on the present. The real translation is that positions and decisions are on the right or wrong side of the progressives and especially those in Academia. At any rate, it’s not the job of the Supreme Court to be “in step” with public opinion, but to decide cases on the law and the Constitution. — Ed]