The court’s public standing is weakening from both directions: Democrats remain deeply skeptical, independents are tepid, and Republicans are now less enthusiastic than they were last year.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s approval rating has fallen to a record low in the United States in 2026: just 33% of Americans approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing, while 61% disapprove, a new Gallup poll or survey shows the decline. The drop from roughly 40% last July comes as support has weakened among key groups of Americans, especially Republicans, while Democrats and independents remain cool.
That matters because the court is not elected, yet its authority depends heavily on public acceptance of its rulings. Gallup’s new numbers suggest the court is entering its next term with unusually broad skepticism.
A new low for the court
Gallup found that 33% of Americans approve of the Supreme Court’s performance, down from 39% in July 2025, which had been the previous low point in the organization’s trend. Disapproval has moved the other way, reaching 61%, the highest Gallup has recorded for the court.
The survey was conducted by telephone from July 1 through July 19 among 1,200 adults. Gallup reported a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Polls are snapshots, not verdicts. But this one is notable because Gallup has tracked approval of the Supreme Court for 26 years, and the new result is not merely a bad month. It marks a new floor.
Republicans cooled after key rulings
The sharpest movement came from Republicans. Gallup said Republican approval of the Supreme Court fell to 58%, down from 79% in its prior measurement in September. That is still far higher than Democratic approval, but the size of the drop is striking.
Gallup pointed to rulings unfavorable to President Donald Trump’s administration as a possible explanation. During the recently concluded term, the court said Trump did not have authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose wide-ranging tariffs on imports from most countries.
The court also voided a Trump executive order that would have sharply restricted birthright citizenship. In another high-profile matter, it rejected Trump’s attempt to summarily fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook while litigation over her termination continued.
Those decisions did not mean the administration lost across the board. Trump also secured important victories, including rulings that strengthened presidential power over some officials at agencies often described as independent. The mixed term may be exactly why Republican attitudes shifted: some supporters expected a conservative court to align more consistently with a Republican president.
Democrats remain deeply skeptical
Democrats’ views were already near the bottom before the new survey. Gallup found that just 12% of Democrats approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing.
Gallup noted that Democratic ratings over the past five years, a period in which the court has had a 6-3 conservative majority, rank among the lowest it has recorded for any party group in its Supreme Court trend. That long-running frustration has been tied to major decisions on abortion, executive power, regulation and other issues where the court’s conservative bloc has reshaped federal law.
Independents are also far from enthusiastic. Gallup put independent approval at 35%, close to the national average and largely unchanged from the prior reading.
The result is an unusual political pattern: Democrats remain overwhelmingly negative, independents are skeptical, and Republicans are less supportive than they were only months ago.
Why approval matters here
The Supreme Court does not need majority approval to issue binding decisions. Its justices serve lifetime appointments, and the Constitution does not make public popularity part of the court’s job description.
Still, public legitimacy matters. The court relies on other branches, lower courts, state officials and the broader public to accept its judgments as law, even when those judgments are unpopular. A sustained collapse in confidence can make every major ruling feel less like neutral adjudication and more like partisan power.
There are competing ways to read the numbers. One view is that the court is paying the price for being pulled into the country’s biggest political fights. Another is that the court’s recent decisions have made its ideological direction more visible to Americans who once paid little attention.
Supporters of the conservative majority may argue that approval ratings should not pressure justices to change their legal reasoning. Critics may counter that a court seen as politically aligned or ethically insulated risks weakening its own authority.
The timing is not accidental
Gallup typically asks Americans about the Supreme Court in July, after the court finishes its term, and again in September, shortly before the justices return to hear cases in October. That timing means the July poll often reflects public reaction to a fresh batch of major rulings.
This year’s survey landed after a term with decisions that cut across partisan expectations. Some rulings advanced conservative legal goals or executive authority. Others frustrated Trump’s agenda on tariffs, birthright citizenship and the attempted firing of Cook.
That mix may help explain why Republican approval dropped while Democratic and independent approval barely moved. For many Democrats, the court’s conservative majority is already the core issue. For some Republicans, dissatisfaction may be more recent and more tied to specific outcomes.
What remains unclear
The biggest unanswered question is whether this is a temporary dip or a new baseline. Supreme Court approval has fallen before after controversial decisions, but Gallup’s trend now shows the court setting a record low after years of intense scrutiny.
The next readings will show whether Republican support rebounds once the court is no longer being judged against a single term’s rulings. They will also show whether independents continue to hover near the court’s overall approval number, which would be a warning sign for an institution that historically drew more cross-partisan respect.
For now, the takeaway is simple: the Supreme Court’s authority remains legally intact, but its public standing is weaker than at any point in Gallup’s modern polling. A 33% approval rating does not change what the justices can do. It changes the climate in which every major decision lands.
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