A majority of Americans favor the recent Supreme Court decision preventing states from removing former president Donald Trump from the ballot, a new poll shows.
A new poll from Marquette Law School found that 56 percent of Americans support the SCOTUS ruling last month preventing states from removing Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The decision was opposed by 39 percent of respondents, and 5 percent did not know.
When Marquette put the word “unanimously” in the question, 58 percent of respondents favored the decision and 42 percent opposed it. Views on the ruling varied widely depending on political affiliation, with 87 percent of Republicans and 50 percent of independents favoring the decision to keep Trump on the ballot. Only 26 percent of Democrats favored the decision.
The Supreme Court ruled 9–0 to keep Trump on the ballot, with five of the conservative justices deciding congressional legislation is required for Section 3 to be enforced.
Colorado’s supreme court ruled in December that Trump was disqualified from the state’s primary ballot for violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment preventing insurrectionists from running for office. Maine’s secretary of state Shenna Bellows (D) followed suit and kicked Trump off her state’s ballot on the same basis as the Colorado decision. Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, and the Supreme Court ruling took place right before elections took place on Super Tuesday.
Overall, 47 percent of Americans approve of the Supreme Court, compared to 40 percent in the last Marquette poll. The highest court’s approval rose by ten points among independents, seven among Republicans, and four among Democrats. Half of respondents heard or read a little news about the Supreme Court, and 30 percent heard or read a lot, with 19 percent not having heard any news about it. Exactly half of the respondents said the justices are primarily motivated by partisan politics, and the other half said they were mainly motivated by interpreting the law.
Roughly two-thirds of respondents, 67 percent, have either a great deal or some confidence in the court, and one-third have little to none.
Trump is also bringing his presidential immunity case — over whether he can be prosecuted for alleged criminal acts during his time in office — to the Supreme Court. The Marquette survey found that 28 percent of respondents believe Trump should be immune from criminal prosecution over official acts, compared to 58 percent who say he should not and 17 percent who do not know.
An even lower number, 20 percent, believe former presidents in general deserve immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts. The gap is attributable to the 55 percent of Republicans who specifically believe Trump deserves presidential immunity, a much higher total than the 32 percent of Republicans in support of generic presidential immunity. Special counsel Jack Smith, embattled Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, and Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg are prosecuting Trump on a variety of criminal charges in Florida, Washington, D.C., New York, and Georgia.
Marquette conducted its poll by interviewing 1,000 adults nationwide from March 18–28 with a plus or minus 4 percent margin of error.