Plurality of Americans think SCOTUS is ideologically balanced, Gallup poll finds

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A plurality of Americans said the Supreme Court is ideologically balanced as currently constructed, in a Gallup poll which asked random citizens across the country about the high court. 

Of the 1,019 adults age 18 and older living in the U.S, 42 percent said the court is evenly split, while 32 percent felt it was too conservative and 23 percent said it was too liberal. 

When it came to the Democratic party, 58 percent said the court has shifted too far to the right. 

The annual Governance poll was conducted by telephone between late August and early September for two weeks. The margin of error is plus or minus four percentage points, "at the 95 percent confidence level." 

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This news comes as President Trump's SCOTUS nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, begins her confirmation hearings to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed away earlier this year due to complications from cancer. 

The polling data was concluded just days before Ginsburg's passing and prior to her seat becoming vacant.

"If [Republicans] succeed in placing a sixth conservative-leaning justice on the nine-member court, they will be doing so at a rare time when the Supreme Court's job approval rating shows a very small partisan divide," Gallup wrote. 

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Political independents are most likely to say the ideological leaning of the court is balanced, at 48 percent, however, one in three (32 percent) said it is too conservative.