Recent Supreme Court decisions on Obamacare and same-sex marriage sent Republican approval of the court to a record-low 18 percent, while support among Democrats soared an the all-time high of 76 percent, according to a new Gallup poll.
Since Gallup last asked the question in Sept. 2014 - when more Republicans approved of the Supreme Court than did Democrats - Republican approval dropped 17 percentage points, and support dropped a total of 33 points since last summer, from 51 percent to the current 18 percent.
Most Republican presidential candidates were outraged at the decisions. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas proposed a constitutional amendment that would subject Supreme Court justices to periodic judicial elections, as HNGN previously reported.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee described the court's ruling on same-sex marriage as an "act of unconstitutional judicial tyranny" and promised to hold his ground against "an imperial court" in the same way the Founding fathers didn't acquiesce to "an imperial British monarch."
"We must resist and reject judicial tyranny," Huckabee said, according to The Washington Times.
Among Democrats, Gallup found that support rose from 47 percent in September to 76 percent when Gallup conducted the most recent poll in late June.
While Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton opposed same-sex marriage during her last presidential campaign, as did then-Sen. Barack Obama, the former secretary of state seems to have had a change of heart.
"As love and joy flood our streets today, it is hard to imagine how anyone could deny the full protection of our laws to any of our fellow Americans - but there are those who would," Clinton said following the same-sex ruling.
Independents' views remained largely unchanged, with 46 percent approving in September compared to the 49 percent who currently do.
Overall approval among Americans is up five points since last fall, from 44 percent to 49 percent, Gallup said.
"Americans -- specifically Democrats and Republicans -- have often changed their opinions of the Supreme Court based on how it has ruled on high-profile decisions. That indicates that many Americans are aware of what the Supreme Court is doing and the public's evaluations have some substance behind them," Gallup's Jeffrey Jones wrote.
"Right now, after two major rulings that were consistent with Democrats' policy preferences, Republicans' and Democrats' views of the Supreme Court are more disparate than at any time in the past 15 years. A key question is how long those highly polarized views might persist. Clearly they could shift if the Supreme Court issues another major ruling on a politically divisive issue that pleases Republicans, which in the next term could be invalidating the use of race as a factor in college admissions. More generally, though, the evidence from the trends suggests the major partisan shifts do not persist long, usually diminishing to some degree in the subsequent poll, and possibly showing more substantial change if there is an intervening major Supreme Court event that favors one group of partisans over another."
Gallup surveyed 1,009 adults nationwide from July 8-12 and reported a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
