Vice President Kamala Harris voices ‘great concern’ over US top court’s integrity

US Vice President Kamala Harris criticises the US Supreme Court as ‘activist’ in a rare interview.

US Vice President Kamala Harris has criticised the US Supreme Court as ‘activist’. Picture: AFP

Vice President Kamala Harris has questioned the impartiality of the Supreme Court, tapping into a recent plunge in support for the nation’s highest judicial body, which could help Democrats defy the odds and keep control of Congress in November.

In a rare television interview, aired on Monday, Ms Harris criticised the top court as “activist”, sharing her “great concern about the integrity of the court overall” following its decision in June to overturn Roe v Wade, a 1973 ruling that had guaranteed national abortion rights.

“We had an established right for almost half a century, which is the right of women to make decisions about their own body,” Ms Harris told journalist Chuck Todd on Meet the Press.

The court’s move to return the right to legislate on abortion to state legislatures, a longstanding goal of conservatives that became possible after former president Donald Trump appointed three conservative justices, has sapped support for the court and buoyed Democrats’ popularity in the run-up to midterm elections in November.

Kamala Harris says she will proudly run as Vice President again in 2024. Picture: AFP

The share of Americans who said they have an unfavourable view of the Supreme Court jumped from 29 per cent last year to 48 per cent in August, according to a Pew Research Centre survey conducted last month.

“Americans’ ratings of the Supreme Court are now as negative as – and more politically polarised than – at any point in more than three decades of polling on the nation’s highest court,” Pew said earlier this month.

Among Democrats, support for the court plunged from 67 pe cent to 28 per cent, over the same period, while for Republicans support edged up slightly to 73 per cent, the survey found.

Chief Justice John Roberts, in his first public remarks since the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health verdict, which overturned Roe, on Saturday defended the court’s independence.

“Simply because people disagree with an opinion is not a basis for questioning the legitimacy of the court,” he said, speaking on a panel in Colorado.

“You don’t want the political branches telling you what the law is. And you don’t want public opinion to be the guide of what the appropriate decision is.”

For Democrats, abortion has become the number one issue of concern, easily surpassing gun control, and the economy, according to the latest NPR/Marist poll conducted in the last few days of August. The same poll found 77 per cent of Democrats said they were more likely to vote in November as a result of the court’s decision, compared to 42 per cent of Republicans.

Ms Harris, who said she would “proudly” run as Vice President again in 2024 with Joe Biden, wouldn’t be drawn into describing Donald Trump’s supporters as “semi-fascist”, as the president controversially did last month, but she did contend that “threats to democracy” from within the US were “dangerous and extremely harmful”.

“Everything is on the line in these elections in just less than two months,” she said, reflecting a tone set by the president in his recent speeches that cast former president’s Trump’s supporters as dangerous extremists.

However controversial, it’s a strategy that appears to be working politically.

Democrats’ approval ratings, including the president’s personal rating, have steadily improved over August and into September, leaving the ruling-party marginally ahead of Republicans in generic national polls, which, if sustained, would make it difficult for Republicans to retake control of Congress, which had been widely expected before the Supreme Court’s abortion decision.