Poll: Most Americans support placing new limits on Supreme Court

Americans broadly support several major changes to the Supreme Court proposed by President Biden and an are split on a controversial measure some in the Democratic Party have advocated.

The proposals favored by Biden — prohibiting conflicts of interest, adopting a formal ethics code, and imposing term limits or a retirement age — drew support from as much as 82% of the population.

Each of those proposals drew majorities of those identifying themselves Democrats, Republican or independents in the poll — with the most popular proposal among all groups being a ban on conflicts of interest.

The poll was released Thursday by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Meanwhile, so-called court packing — increasing the number of justices to allow Biden or his successor to appoint several justices — was favored by just 29% of the population. Even among Democrats, the proposal was supported by fewer than half of respondents.

Democrats were most likely to support each of the proposals, and both Democrats and independents were more likely to support reforms the more they knew about basic civics questions like what rights are guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Republicans were less likely to support changes — and the greater their knowledge of civics, the more they were likely to oppose reforms.

"This should be extremely worrying for members of the Supreme Court. The court's independence has long been sustained by its strong bipartisan support in the public. If that vanishes, the court may find itself reformed or constrained in ways that weaken its power," said Annenberg professor Matt Levendusky in a statement.

The poll of 1,590 U.S. adults was taken on behalf of Annenberg by research firm SSRS in May. It had a margin of error of 3.3%.

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