We argue that the controversial Barrett appointment and President Trump’s norm-violating rhetoric posed risks to the Supreme Court’s ability to generate acceptance of a 2020 election intervention. We fielded four nationally-representative survey experiments to measure the Court’s ability to generate public acceptance of an election intervention across key events during the election period. Results show that public acceptance changed substantially across events. The Court lacked the ability to induce acceptance, particularly among Democrats, after the election. Only after the Court dismisses the Republican-led election challenge does acceptance rebound. The Court’s ability to generate public acceptance regarding election disputes appears tenuous.
