Public Still Views Supreme Court Unfavorably While Backing Most Recent Rulings

A new Marquette Law School poll shows less than half of Americans approve of the Supreme Court, even as most people support the outcomes of most decisions from its latest term.

A Marquette Law School poll released Thursday surveyed 1,076 U.S. adults between July 22 and 29, revealing that approval of the Supreme Court’s handling of its duties remains under 50% for the eighth consecutive month. While overall sentiment is negative, respondents expressed support for the Court’s outcomes in 11 of the 13 major decisions from the just-finished term, especially the ruling curbing police use of cell-phone location data.

Approval rates differ sharply by party, with a large majority of Republicans expressing confidence in the Court, contrasted with low approval among independents and Democrats. The poll also highlighted partisan perceptions of the Court’s alignment with the Trump administration and beliefs that justices are driven more by politics than law. Awareness of the Court’s work was modest, with less than a third of respondents saying they had heard a lot about it recently, though specific high-profile cases such as birthright citizenship attracted the most attention.