U.S. Supreme Court's job disapproval rating hits record high: poll

More than half of Americans, or 52 percent, disapprove of the job of the U.S. Supreme Court, setting a new record in the past 16 years, found a latest Gallup poll.

This year's disapproval rating of the court was up by 2 percentage points over last year, according to Gallup.

Accordingly, the court's current job approval rating, at 42 percent, matches the lowest record in June 2005, showed the July 13-17 poll.

The court's approval rating has never surged above 50 percent since September 2010, Gallup said.

In fact, the court's approval rating has ranged between 43 percent and 49 percent in the past five years, including 45 percent last year.

The Supreme Court, which just concluded its 2015-2016 term, had only eight justices after the death of Antonin Scalia in February. Due to opposition from Republican lawmakers in Congress, President Barack Obama's choice of Merrick Garland to replace Scalia has been blocked so far.

"As a result, the shorthanded court deadlocked on several potentially important decisions, upholding previous lower court rulings," Gallup said.

For example, the court ruled recently to allow universities and colleges to continue to consider an applicant's racial or ethnic background in making admissions decisions, despite it was widely disapproved by Americans.

The last lowest approval rating of the court came in June 2005 after its decision to permit governments to use the power of eminent domain to seize private property for economic development purposes.

The current depressed ratings for the Supreme Court are partially due to Americans' long-standing dissatisfaction with the way things are going in the country, their frustrations with the government and diminished confidence in U.S. institutions more generally, Gallup said. Enditem