Supreme Court Approval Plunges Among Independent Voters - Newsweek

The United States Supreme Court’s approval rating plunged to a historic low among independents ahead of its upcoming term, according to a new Gallup poll published Wednesday.

The Supreme Court has faced eroding public trust in recent years as a growing number of Americans have questioned its impartiality and independence. Democrats have criticized the conservative-leaning court for the overturning of Roe v. Wade and what they view as the weakening of the Voting Rights Act. And President Donald Trump has taken issue with other rulings, namely when the justices stymied his efforts to end birthright citizenship.

The court’s approval among independent voters fell to 31 percent, the lowest point ever in a Gallup poll. That compares to 35 percent in July 2026 and 38 percent in September 2025.

Overall, 34 percent of Americans said they approve of the Supreme Court, near the record low of 33 percent in July 2026, according to the Gallup poll.

The court’s approval stood at 42 percent one year ago in September 2025, and 44 percent in September 2024, according to Gallup polling.

Approval among Republicans rebounded from 58 percent in July to 65 percent in September, according to the new poll. Views toward the court were unchanged among Democrats at 12 percent across both polls, which is near the historic low of 11 percent in July 2025.

Newsweek reached out to the Supreme Court for comment via email.

The court is being “bombarded with criticism and very little praise,” Stephen Wermiel, professor of practice in constitutional law at American University, told Newsweek.

“Liberals think the Court is nothing but a conservative think-tank. Trump thinks his conservative appointees have betrayed him and says so in the most denigrating ways. All of this foment about the Court from all sides is bound to chip away at the Court's standing,” he said.

A majority of the public views the High Court as being “out of step with the nation’s core values,” Daniel Urman, law professor at Northeastern University, told Newsweek.

“The 6-3 conservative supermajority has issued a number of rulings related to abortion, guns, executive power, and beyond that are deeply unpopular with the public; they are seen as too conservative. The public views the court as “political,” where Republican appointed Justices vote in ways that help Republicans,” he said.

It would take “fewer controversial cases where 6 conservative Justices are in the majority and 3 liberal Justices are in dissent” for the court’s image to improve, he added.

“The sense that the Court is doing ‘law’ and not politics. An enforceable ethics code would probably help with public perception of the Court, as the Court is seen by many as “above the law” since they are not bound by the same ethical rules as other federal judges.”

Over the past decade, the court’s highest approval rating was recorded in July 2020 at 58 percent. It had fallen to 40 percent by September 2021, then a record low. The court’s popularity has struggled to rebound in the years since.

In July 2025, approval toward the court fell below 40 percent for the first time at 39 percent. In September 2025, it slightly rose to 42 percent. But it fell back down to 33 percent in July 2026.

Republicans have viewed the Supreme Court more favorably than Democrats in recent years. Conservatives make up a 6-3 majority on the bench. July 2016 was the last time Democrats viewed the court more favorably than Republicans.

At the time, 60 percent of Democrats said they approved of the Supreme Court, compared to just 32 percent of Republicans in Gallup polling.

In the most recent poll, 43 percent of Americans said they viewed the court as being too conservative in the poll, while 35 percent said its ideology is “about right,” and 17 percent said it is too liberal.

The new poll surveyed 1,000 adults from September 1 to 17, 2026, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Some justices have publicly confronted the declining approval ratings the High Court is facing.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a liberal, questioned its use of the emergency docket, during recent remarks at the University of the District of Columbia’s law school, reported The Hill.

Unlike in routine cases, which can take months to be looked at by the justices, the Supreme Court does not hear oral arguments in emergency-docket cases and renders quick decisions, often without opinions, meaning judges are unsure of the legal arguments that swayed the justices.

Jackson has been critical of the court’s use of what critics call the “shadow docket.”

“Why is it that one party should get a fast pass to the Supreme Court of the United States, when so many other parties are queued up, waiting patiently for the court’s attention?” she said, according to the news outlet. The other two justices have also been critical of the court's handling of the emergency docket, though Justice Elena Kagan did say over the summer that it had improved as of late.

The Trump administration has used the High Court’s emergency docket to seek quick intervention from the justices in cases still playing out in lower courts. The High Court sided with the Trump administration in about two dozen decisions last year, often lifting orders issued by lower-court judges who found the administration's policies likely illegal.

In May, Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, a conservative, said during an event that the court should be careful in how it overrules precedent.

“If you do it cavalierly, overrule precedent just because you think it’s wrong, then the whole system begins to suffer,” he said.

The shadow docket concerns raised by Jackson add "to diminution of the Court's status,” Wermiel said to Newsweek.

“Those who follow commentary about the Court, including independent voters, have a sense that the Court is doing something wrong in its own procedures,” he said. “I think more explanation of shadow docket actions and more awareness of the Court ruling against Trump on some big cases (birthright citizenship, tariffs, Federal Reserve removal, mail-in ballots) may restore some balance to the Court’s stature.”

Some of the most prominent rulings from the court’s previous term involved Trump, who has faced numerous legal challenges over parts of his agenda, and they were not always favorable to the president.

Among the most notable rulings, the court ruled 6-3 against the administration's efforts to end birthright citizenship. It was a direct blow to a Trump executive order aimed at ending the practice.

The court also ruled against Trump on tariffs, holding that he lacked authority to impose sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. It also blocked Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

But the justices did side with the administration’s position on issues like transgender athletes’ inclusion in sports and other issues of executive authority.

The court also struck down Louisiana’s second majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana v. Callais, which redefined—and many argue weakened—the Voting Rights Act. In the wake of the ruling, several Republican-led states like Alabama and Tennessee redrew their maps in ways that critics argued have diluted Black voters' influence in elections.

Trump on Sunday criticized the Supreme Court over its ruling that Missouri cannot use a Republican-backed congressional map for the midterms, and instead must use the map drawn ahead of 2022.

“The Supreme Court of the United States will just not let Missouri have an Election Victory. They continuously, three times now, overrule Judges who came to the correct decisions,” he wrote.

Earlier in September, he wrote on Truth Social that the Supreme Court “has lacked the Courage to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”

“Over the last 6 months, with their faulty, political, and ridiculous decisions on TARIFFS and Birthright Citizenship, they have cost the United States of America Trillions of Dollars, and forever damaged the way people become Citizens of our great Country,” he wrote.

Other recent polling has also found that the High Court is viewed poorly by most Americans.

A Marquette Law School Poll found the court’s net approval at -14 points, with 43 percent approving and 57 percent disapproving. It surveyed 1,023 adults from September 2 to 9, and it had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the court’s approval was -22 points in a recent poll from YouGov and The Economist. It found that 34 percent of Americans approved of the court, while 56 percent disapproved.

Forty-nine percent said the court was conservative, while 10 percent viewed it as liberal in the poll.

It surveyed 1,469 registered voters from September 4 to 8.

The Supreme Court could have opportunities to improve its standing in the upcoming term, according to Urman.

"As usual, there are cases on hot button issues this term, including climate change, guns, religion, and more. If the Court ruled unanimously and narrowly, and not in a way that reinforced perceptions of them as politicians in robes, that could go a long way. In other words, if the Court 'played against type' and defied predictable patterns, that might increase public support of the Court."