Most Americans say the president is required to follow the Supreme Court’s rulings, a new survey found.
The survey, released Thursday by Marquette University, found that 83 percent of respondents believe the Commander in Chief should follow the laws decided by the Supreme Court justices. However, 17 percent say the president has the power to disregard and overrule those decisions.
More Republican respondents than independents and Democrats say the president can ignore the court’s ruling, the survey found.
The survey comes just after President Trump pushes back on the court system.
Federal judges have halted several of the president’s executive orders that aim to reshape the U.S. government. Those rulings have blocked the plans from going forward, at least temporarily. Some cases may make their way to the conservative Supreme Court.
Trump and his allies have slammed the judges for blocking the measures and the question about the president’s executive authority and checks and balances have been brought to light.
The survey found that 87 percent of respondents support the Supreme Court’s right to review and deem laws passed by Congress as illegal. All partisan groups hold near equal views on this issue.
Just over half, 51 percent, of Americans approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing, which is the highest amount of support it’s received in the last three years.
The Marquette survey was conducted from Jan. 27-Feb. 5 among 1,018 adults and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
