As the 2020 election draws near, most Christians view the Supreme Court favorably, a report from the Pew Research Center found.
The report, based on data collected in July 2019, found that while 62% of respondents were optimistic about the court, that number was higher among Christians. Overall, 69% of Christians thought the court would deliver favorable outcomes, a statistic that included about 70% of white evangelical Protestants, 72% of white nonevangelical Protestants, and 70% of Catholics.
Although voter preferences for the court do not affect how it behaves, potential court appointments influence how many people vote. In 2016, a Pew survey found that Supreme Court appointments were “very important” to the majority of voters. Many Christians listed it as one of their top issues, with 70% of white, evangelical Protestants, 66% of Catholics, 61% of white, nonevangelical Protestants saying it would affect the way they voted.
This year, the Supreme Court is set to hand down several decisions that will affect Christians and faith-based organizations. In one of the most high-profile cases, the court will decide whether employers can choose to deny their employees birth control on moral grounds. Gay rights and religious liberty will clash in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which concerns whether or not religious adoption agencies will be forced to serve gay couples. The ruling in June Medical Services v. Russo will decide whether abortion restrictions in Louisiana are too burdensome on women.
Supreme Court approval among Christians is up from 2015, when it delivered a landmark decision on gay marriage.
The majority of the respondents believed that, on the whole, the Supreme Court holds a neutral attitude toward religion, with 69% expressing that opinion. Less than 20% of respondents thought the court is favorable to religion, and only 11% thought it is unfriendly. Self-described atheists are the most likely to say that the court favors the religious, the report found.
Only 51%, a slight majority, of religiously unaffiliated people viewed the court favorably, according to the report.
