The Nation - News from July 14, 1985

Public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court, Congress, public schools and the military has increased sharply since 1983, the Gallup Poll found. The percentage of survey respondents expressing a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the Supreme Court increased 14 percentage points since 1983, from 42% to 56%. The increase was 11 points (to 39%) in the case of Congress over the same period. A nine-point upturn was recorded for public schools (to 48%), and an increase of eight points for the military (to 61%). However, statistically speaking, little change occurred since 1983 in confidence in the six other institutions tested. These were organized religion (66%), banks and banking (51%), newspapers (35%), big business (31%), television (29%) and organized labor (28%).