FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

News

Brett Kavanaugh is the least popular SCOTUS pick in decades

He's less popular than President Reagan's pick Robert Bork, who was rejected by the Senate in 1987.

Americans are more divided on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination than they’ve been on any recent Supreme Court nominee, according to recent polling.

Only 41 percent of respondents to a Gallup poll, published on Tuesday, said that they supported Kavanaugh’s nomination, while 37 percent opposed it. The four-point spread between those who support and those who oppose his nomination make him less popular than anyone since Robert Bork was nominated in 1987.

Advertisement

And the Gallup poll isn’t alone in it’s findings.

Another poll, from Pew Research Center that was also published on Tuesday, found nearly the exact same thing: 41 percent support, and 36 percent don’t. And the Supreme Court appears to matter to more people now that before: 83 percent of respondents said the choice of the next Supreme Court justice is either very or somewhat important to them personally, compared to the 57 percent who responded the same way to Merrick Garland’s nomination, and 40 percent for Justice Elena Kagan’s.

Among the top concerns, according to the Pew poll, are abortion rights. Sixty-one percent of those polled said they wanted Kavanaugh to address his views on abortion during his confirmation hearings, as his nomination could pave the way for overturning Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion across the U.S.

READ: Will Trump's Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh overturn Roe v. Wade?

And, of course, Democrats lead the resistance to Kavanaugh’s nomination: only 14 percent of those polled by Gallup, who identify as Democrats, want to see Kavanaugh serve on the high court.

Cover image: Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, walks to a meeting with Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia, not pictured, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, July 17, 2018. (Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)