A new poll released this week found that the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose ending the filibuster and oppose packing the Supreme Court.
The poll, from Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, also found that Republicans and Independents were consistent when it came to opposing packing the Supreme Court regardless of who would benefit from it.
Democrats on the other hand showed significantly more support for packing the Supreme Court under Democrat President Joe Biden but then overwhelmingly rejected the idea when asked if they would support packing the Supreme Court if Donald Trump was still president.
Highlights from the poll:
QUESTION: For over 150 years, the United States Supreme Court has had nine justices. “Court packing” is generally defined as increasing the number of Supreme Court seats, primarily to alter the ideological balance of the court. Do you support or oppose “court packing”?
RESULTS:
- Support: Democrats 50%, Republicans 4%, Independents 26%
- Oppose: Democrats 47%, Republicans 90%, Independents 68%
- Undecided: Democrats 3%, Republicans 6%, Independents 6%
QUESTION: If Donald Trump had been reelected as President and he proposed increasing the size of the Supreme Court from nine members to thirteen members, would you support or oppose his efforts?
RESULTS:
- Support: Democrats 7%, Republicans 14%, Independents 13%
- Oppose: Democrats 90%, Republicans 76%, Independents 83%
- Undecided: Democrats 3%, Republicans 10%, Independents 4%
QUESTION: Do you support or oppose ending the filibuster in the United States Senate?
RESULTS:
- Support: Democrats 73%, Republicans 9%, Independents 31%
- Oppose: Democrats 17%, Republicans 83%, Independents 61%
- Undecided: Democrats 10%, Republicans 8%, Independents 8%
The Wall Street Journal added:
Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker finds consistently strong opposition among independents to such plans for structural changes, and concludes that moderate and unaffiliated voters did not vote for Joe Biden in 2020 “to turn the government upside-down” or “remake America.” Rather, they were hoping he would bring calm and perhaps “less bickering” to Washington, he adds. …
If Senate Democrats choose to make such radical changes despite widespread popular opposition, the new survey suggests they can expect a political reckoning in 2022. Independents saying they would be less likely to vote to re-elect their senators if they “voted to remove the filibuster rule and pack the Supreme Court” outnumber those saying they would be more likely by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
Mason-Dixon has a well-earned reputation for producing among the most accurate political polls.
Democrats have repeatedly threatened to pack the Supreme Court and end the legislative filibuster in recent months. The New York Times reported earlier this month that Biden made the decision to move forward with studying court packing because he was “under pressure from activists.”
Former Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) warned earlier this month that Democrats needed to be very careful when it comes to trying to alter the Supreme Court, including proposals to pack the court with leftist judges or trying to subject the justices to term limits. Court packing is so politically controversial that many on the hard-left oppose it, including socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and leftist Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Even former leftist Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was against it.