The Supreme Court will start a new term in a month facing an array of high-profile cases, many involving the Trump administration, as well as speculation about the possible retirements of several Justices. Additionally, the release of Justice Amy Coney Barret’s Listening to the Law will offer insights into her approach to judging future cases and her views of the current Court.
Reviewing the polls, it is tempting to characterize the Court as yet another institution facing a serious deficit of public trust by partisan public judgements. But there is more to the story.
Let’s take a step back first to look at major trends about the Court. Gallup has been asking its question about confidence in the Court in 1973 and another one about approval of the Court in 2000. The Pew Research Center has asked people whether they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion since 1987, with a change in methodology in 2019. Fox News has asked registered voters a Court approval question since 2006. Marquette University Law School began its polling on the Court in 2019.
In July, Gallup found that a paltry 39% approved of the way the Court was handling its job, the lowest rating by a single point in a quarter century. In Pew’s favorability question from August, 48% were positive. That’s near a three-decade low. In the July 2025 Fox poll, 47% of registered voters approved of the job the Court was doing, an uptick from its recent polls. And in Marquette’s latest from July 2025, 49% approved. In broad strokes then, views of the Court, like views on so many other central institutions, have shown significant erosion.
Sharp partisan differences are helping to drive the decline. In the past, Democrats liked the Court better when their party was in power, as did Republicans when they held the levers of government. Today, partisan differences on some decisions are exceptionally large. The Dobbs abortion decision is one example. Pew, found that a 45-point chasm separated Democrats (28%) and Republicans (73%) on favorability after the Court’s decision.
It is probably unrealistic to expect the Court’s approval ratings to turn up any time soon given its current place in the political fray. But there are other poll findings that provide a small measure of confidence. Marquette’s questions about the authority of the Court show that majorities or near majorities, albeit with very different partisan complexions, continue to support the authority of the Court and limitations on presidential power. In the poll, for example, 82% of Republicans and 86% of Democrats said the president is required to follow Court rulings when the Court rules against him. Sixty-five percent of Republicans and 94% of Democrats agreed that the president does not have the authority to make laws on his own when Congress fails to act. A still substantial 42% of Republicans (and 94% of Democrats) said federal courts temporarily blocking some of the Trump administration’s actions was a proper use of judicial authority.
Marquette found bipartisan agreement on key recent decisions and partisan divides on others. As Marquette notes, “These divisions are generally smaller than ones typically seen for presidential approval or other clearly partisan issues.” Eighty-four percent of Republicans and 68% of Democrats approved of the Court upholding a Texas law meant to prevent minors from accessing sexual materials on the Internet. Fifty-three percent of Republicans and 92% of Democrats agreed with the Court’s decision that those the administration is seeking to deport must receive due process. Ninety percent of Republican and 52% of Democrats approved the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a Tennessee law that bans transgender treatment for youths under 18. Ninety-one percent of Republicans and a strong plurality of Democrats (48%) approved of the Court’s June decision to let parents of elementary school children opt out of certain classes for religious reasons. Seventy percent of Republicans and 47% of Democrats approved of another June decision on a Catholic charity tax exemption. Nationally, all these decisions had majority support. Forty-eight percent of Republicans and 94% of Democrats approved of the Court’s 2015 gay marriage decision.
In an interview this past weekend, Justice Barrett said that she wants “people to have trust in the Court.” That’s a tall order with abysmal civic education and sharp partisan divisions over thorny issues. But there is good news that in some important areas, Democrats and Republicans understand the Court’s proper role.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bowmanmarsico/2025/09/08/polls-on-the-supreme-courts-ratings-and-authority/
