Republicans in America believe the Supreme Court is ideologically moderate or, if anything, liberal, according to findings from Pew Research Center released Monday.
The survey found pluralities of Republicans describing the high court — widely seen as having a conservative majority — as either “middle of the road” or liberal. Forty-five percent of conservative Republicans said the court has a liberal makeup, while 39 percent said it is down the middle. Among moderate-to-liberal Republicans, 45 percent said the Supreme Court is middle of the road and 29 percent said it’s liberal. No more than 15 percent of either group of Republican respondents called the court conservative.
As one might expect, Democrats have a wildly different interpretation. Forty-eight percent of liberal Democrats said the Supreme Court is conservative, while 31 percent said it’s middle of the round. A plurality of 45 percent of moderate-to-conservative Democrats said the court resides in the middle, while 26 percent said it’s conservative.