In 2019, PRRI asked Americans if they had a favorable opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court. More than half (52%) of Americans held favorable views of the court, 28% held unfavorable views, and 20% said they had not heard of the nation’s highest court. This week, President Donald Trump has released a list of potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, should a vacancy materialize in his potential second term. Among the selections are controversial Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas.) and Tom Cotton (R-AK). These selections, according to Ian Millhiser at Vox, “are politicians who spent their time in Congress flaunting their conservative bona fides and enraging Democrats… The biggest mystery, in other words, is not what the next potential Trump nominee to the Supreme Court might believe, it’s whether Trump would pick someone with a professional demeanor — or choose a professional troll.”

PRRI data from 2019 shows that nearly six in ten Americans (57%) report a change to how strongly they think about themselves in partisan terms since Trump was elected in 2016, but more than four in ten (43%) say their partisan self-image has not changed. More than one in four (27%) say they have become more likely to think of themselves as Democrats, fewer than one in five (17%) say they have become more likely to think of themselves as independents, and only 13% report they have become more likely to think of themselves as Republicans. In Politico, Holly Otterbein writes of increased Republican voter registration in Pennsylvania, driven in part by Trump-first voters. “It’s Trump, Trump, Trump,” Gloria Lee Snover, chair of the Northampton County Republican Party tells Otterbein. “They’re like, ‘Oh, I want to be in the Trump party.’ It’s kind of funny. … I’m like, ‘You mean the Republican Party?’ They’re like, ‘Oh, yeah,’” she says.

Members of the Great Falls City Commission in Great Falls, Montana declined to issue a city ordinance that would provide LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections against residents. Though the committee condemned discrimination towards the LGBTQ community, they argued that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling provided sufficient protections. PRRI data shows that a slim majority (62%) of Montana residents support LGBT nondiscrimination protections. Support is higher among all Americans, 72% of whom favor laws that would protect LGBT people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing, including 30% who strongly favor the policy. Only about one in five (21%) Americans oppose these protections.