Back in 1999, Gallup asked Americans "how much trust and confidence" they had in the federal government's "judicial branch headed by the U.S. Supreme Court." And 80 percent of respondents said they had either a "great deal" or a "fair amount."
But in 2023, Gallup found that public "approval" for the High Court was only 41 percent.
In a blistering column published on June 4, the New York Times' Maureen Dowd laments that the Court's reputation has suffered considerably in recent years. And the Times' reporting that an upside-down flag was hanging outside Justice Samuel Alito's home in Alexandria, Virginia on January 17, 2021 — only 11 days after the Capitol insurrection — can only made make things worse, Dowd warns.
READ MORE: MAGA symbol was visible on Samuel Alito’s property as Supreme Court weighed election case
"It was the same upside-down symbol that insurrectionists carried to the Capitol on January 6 to proclaim that they thought the election was stolen and that was seen flying over Justice Samuel Alito's house in suburban Virginia even as the Supreme Court was considering whether to hear a case about the 2020 presidential election," Dowd writes. "Now that it's being used to show support for a felonious ex-president, Alito will have an even harder time trying to pretend he's oblivious about its meaning."
Dowd adds, "I don't need a black robe to hand down a judgment on the Supreme Court. It's corrupt, rotten and hurting America."
The New York Times columnist goes on to lay out a variety of other reasons why the U.S. Court is held in such low regard by much of the American public in 2024, including Justice Clarence Thomas' "ethical snarls," his wife Ginni Thomas' efforts to help former President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election results, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
Justice Alito's effort to make his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, "the fall guy" in the upside-down flag scandal, Dowd argues, are disingenuous.
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"The once-august Court, which the public held in highest esteem, is now hopelessly corroded," Dowd writes. "It is in the hands of a cabal of religious and far-right zealots, including a couple of ethical scofflaws with MAGA wives…. In this latest firestorm, (Justice Alito) blamed one woman in particular: his wife, Martha-Ann. Somehow, in Alito’s world, women are to blame."
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Maureen Dowd's full New York Times column is available at this link (subscription required).
