WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court is set to begin its 2026-2027 term next week, with Americans’ views of the institution the least positive since Gallup began polling on the court in 1972.
Forty-six percent of U.S. adults say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the judicial branch of the federal government, one percentage point below the 47% to 49% range measured between 2022 and 2025. Additionally, 34% of U.S. adults approve of the job the court is doing, essentially unchanged from the record-low 33% approval measured in July but significantly lower than other prior readings. Forty-three percent of Americans describe the Supreme Court as being “too conservative,” tying the high measured last year, while 35%, a new low, say it is “about right” ideologically.
These results are from Gallup’s annual Governance poll, conducted Sept. 1-17. Gallup typically measures Supreme Court approval twice a year: in September, before the beginning of each term, and in July, at each term’s conclusion. Institutional trust and perceptions of ideology are measured each September.
Trust in the Court Remains Below the Majority Level
The latest poll finds 12% of Americans saying they have a great deal of trust in “the judicial branch headed by the U.S. Supreme Court,” 34% saying they have a fair amount of trust, 30% not very much and 24% no trust at all.
This is the fifth consecutive year that the combined “great deal/fair amount of trust” percentage has been below the majority level, after never having been lower than 50% before 2022. In fact, the Supreme Court maintained the trust of at least six in 10 U.S. adults in all but one year (2015) between 1972 and 2020.
The drop in trust in the judicial branch began in 2021, falling to 54% from 67% in the first survey conducted after the court’s shift to a 6-3 conservative majority. Trust then dropped below 50% in 2022 following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade (1973), ruling that the Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion.
In line with these developments, Democrats are mainly responsible for declining trust in the federal court, falling from 58% in 2020 to 25% in 2022, before settling at 23% in 2025 and 2026 — the lowest for any party subgroup in Gallup’s trend.
Trust among independents has also dropped over 20 points, from 63% in 2020 to 42% today, also a low for that group.
At the same time, 79% of Republicans trust the judicial branch, which is slightly lower than the 84% in 2020, at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term, but higher than trust in the court during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Job Approval Essentially Tied as the Lowest
The Supreme Court’s current 34% job approval rating essentially ties the 33% measured in July after the conclusion of the court’s 2025-2026 term as the lowest in Gallup’s trend. Sixty-one percent of U.S. adults disapprove of the court, matching the figure from July.
Prior to this year, the Supreme Court’s approval rating had only been below 40% once in Gallup’s trend since 2000, a 39% reading in July 2025.
The high point in the Supreme Court’s approval rating is 62%, recorded in the initial reading in 2000 and in a June 2001 survey. Most readings between 2000 and 2010 were above the majority level. Since then, there have only been a few readings above 50%, all between 2018 and 2020.
As with Democrats’ trust in the federal judiciary, their approval of the Supreme Court is essentially at a record low, with 12% approving (a low of 11% approved in July 2025). Approval among independents, 31%, is at a low point for that group, while 65% of Republicans approve.
More Republicans approve than did so in July, but the current figure is still significantly below their 79% approval measured in September 2025, which is historically among the highest approval ratings for either major party.
For much of Gallup’s trend, partisans’ approval of the Supreme Court has been influenced by the incumbent president, with supporters of the president’s party more likely to approve than those who identify with the opposition party. This was the pattern in most surveys conducted between 2000 and 2020.
However, that changed under President Biden from 2021 to 2024, as the court’s conservative majority aligned it more with the Republican Party rather than the president’s Democratic Party. Now, with a Republican president back in office, the typical pattern has returned during the two years of Trump’s second term.
Plurality Continues to See Court as Too Conservative
Since 1993, Gallup has asked Americans about their perceptions of the Supreme Court’s ideological leanings. For most of the past three decades, the largest share of Americans have said the court is “about right” rather than being “too liberal” or “too conservative.”
That has changed in the past two years, with record highs of 43% describing the court as being too conservative, 35% saying it is about right (a record low) and 17% too liberal.
The vast majority of Democrats, 76%, believe the Supreme Court is too conservative, as do 41% of independents but only 11% of Republicans. Most Republicans, 57%, believe the court is about right, but 30% think it is too liberal.
Bottom Line
The Supreme Court’s public standing has weakened the past few years, with less than half of Americans saying they trust the institution, and now only one in three approving of the job it is doing. The declines are largely due to plummeting trust and approval among Democrats and political independents, which are currently at the lowest levels for both groups. While some of the justices have in public appearances tried to assure the public that the court is not a political institution, Americans do not seem to be persuaded.
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