Report: Judiciary Approval Poll

The Gazette (through its parent company GatoPoll) has often been asked to poll the SimDem public's approval of the judicial branch, but we've avoided doing so due to both the complexity of the poll (it would require making a new tabulation system) and the perceived lack of knowledge the public has regarding the judiciary compared to the presidency and Senate.

However, in response to a sponsor request, we've relented. After much anticipation, we're proud to release the first judiciary approval poll; let us know if you'd like this to become a regular fixture like the executive/Senate approval polls (albeit less often).

We decided to ask two sets of questions about both the Supreme Court and lower courts: first, how much trust do citizens have in the respective court system? Second, what was their approval of each judge or justice?

The weighted results from our 25 respondents can be seen below:

Note: Some chart percentages may not add up to exactly 100% due to rounding.

 Supreme Court

The chart above suggests that nearly three-quarters (74%) of citizens have a considerable amount of trust in the Supreme Court as an institution, with just over 25% expressing a "great deal" of confidence in the Court. Conversely, 26% said that they had "not much" trust in the Court or "none at all." Overall, these results indicate a mostly-positive view of the highest court in SimDem and should be a sign of relief for those worried about how the Court is perceived.

Chief Justice Alexa

The Chief Justice has a positive net approval rating of +37.3%, and a majority (53%) of citizens approve of her work. Only 15.7% expressed disapproval, with the remaining third (31.4%) having a neutral view. 

The Chief Justice's role as the face of the Court may have made her more controversial, owing to the large section of neutral or disapproving answers. However, her professionalism and generally positive reputation shine through, contributing to the positive net approval rating we see here.

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Justice Syndicality

Justice Syndicality has an extremely high net approval rating of +75.9%, with only about 1 in 6 people expressing anything but approval for the justice.

This is likely due to his positive reputation and recognition as Elections Supervisor; very few people have an issue with this justice unless they're sore losers in a recent election with misdirected anger.

Justice Sparty

Justice Sparty has a quite low net approval rating of -16.8%, with only 18% expressing approval and a whopping 44.9% expressing neutrality.

Besides his sometimes-thorny demeanor, his recent comments on furries in response to a joke campaign have likely turned public sentiment against him. Additionally, his judicial conduct hasn't been without criticism, such as the decision to unban TIDE members after a SAO/OHS/SDBI joint investigation proved them to be a threat.

Lower Courts

For the most part, it's clear that the lower courts (with twice as many judges and somewhat decentralized compared to the Supreme Court) are far less controversial.

Nearly three-quarters (73.9%) of citizens have a fair amount of trust and confidence in the lower courts, alongside 17.2% who have a "great deal"; less than 1 in 11 citizens have a negative view.

The six judges' results will be displayed in three separate groups based on similar characteristics.

Judges Average, Benbookworm, Tirado, and Ëd

This group of judges are similar in a few ways: first, they all have net approval ratings over 50%; their specific numbers are as follows (in order of highest to lowest):

1. Judge Average787enjoyer: +68%
2. Judge Benbookworm: +65.1%
3. Judge Tirado: +61%
4. Judge Ëd: +50.4%

These very high approval ratings are likely due to their positive reputations and histories in SimDem; for example, Average is a former president and Ëd is a well-known defense attorney. 

They are also very uncontroversial; all but Ëd have raw approval numbers over two-thirds. Lastly, most citizens appear sure of their ratings since all four judges received 3.3% or less "Unsure" responses.

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Judge Britz

Judge Britz has a decently-high net approval rating of +35.2%, but his results are marked by a significant proportion of "unsure" responses (13.6%, the highest of anyone in this poll).

That number is likely due to him rarely speaking outside of the courtroom; it's extremely professional, but those who haven't argued a case before him likely don't even know who he is.

Judge Heinrich

Judge Heinrich is possibly the most controversial member of the judiciary. He has the lowest approval and highest disapproval by far, culminating in a -35.2% net approval rating.

There could be any number of explanations for these results; Heinrich has his critics due to his association/friendship with banned member Mook, his initiation of Mook and Panzer's (another banned user) ban appeals, and his naming in the criminal case against CLP members that caused quite a stir before it was dropped without explanation.

In any case, Heinrich is on a level of his own within these ratings.

UPDATE (3/10/2025 4:52 AM EDT): Corrected a misattribution of responsibility for the TIDE unban scandal (originally listed under Alexa).