Poll: 35 percent give Supreme Court 'good' or 'excellent' rating

A new survey partially conducted in the aftermath of the decision to uphold President Obama's signature healthcare law shows that 35 percent of Americans think the U.S. Supreme Court is doing a "good" or "excellent" job. 

Conversely, 22 percent of likely voters surveyed say the court is doing a "poor" job, and 39 percent describe the court as having shown a "fair" performance, according to a survey released Friday by Rasmussen.

The performance ratings had spiked in early April, following oral arguments in the healthcare reform case. At that time, 41 percent of Americans said the court was doing a "good" or "excellent" job, likely the result of either optimism the unpopular bill would be overturned, or simply increased media attention on the inner workings of the judicial branch.

But by earlier this month, the ratings had dipped back down, and surveying done after the Supreme Court's decision Thursday did not seem to significantly move American opinion.

Dismayed conservative commentators have suggested that Chief Justice John Roberts might have split with liberals on the controversial 5-4 decision in hopes of boosting public confidence in the court after divisive rulings in the Citizens United and Bush v. Gore cases.

"The chief, who made the protection of the court’s institutional image and entirely persuasive power his foremost goal, has gutted the limitation on enumerated powers to achieve that goal," wrote Thomas Crown on the popular conservative blog Red State.

But it might take more time for the true ramifications for the court to be observed. The Rasmussen survey included polling conducted the day before the ruling, and did not disclose how many of the 1,000 respondents were contacted after the court's ruling.

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