Public Views of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Aftermath of the Kavanaugh Confirmation
Published online on July 28, 2020
Abstract
["\n\nObjective\nWe analyze public views of the Supreme Court following the confirmation hearings of Brett M. Kavanaugh.\n\n\nMethods\nWe distributed an online survey days after the Senate confirmed Kavanaugh's appointment.\n\n\nResults\nSupreme Court legitimacy was weak following the hearings and perceptions of legitimacy varied based on partisanship, gender, and race. However, legitimacy was not strongly related to support for Kavanaugh. Furthermore, respondents consistently ranked political characteristics as the least important attributes of a nominee. Still, those satisfied with the Senate confirmation process ranked political attributes as more important.\n\n\nConclusion\nOur findings portend some challenges for the Court in the wake of the Kavanaugh confirmation. At the same time, Supreme Court legitimacy was only weakly tied to Kavanaugh, and legal qualities and moral character were more important to the public than a nominee's political attributes.\n\n", "Social Science Quarterly, Volume 101, Issue 4, Page 1430-1441, July 2020. "]