The Supreme Court’s approval rating has cratered to an all-time low of 33%, according to a new Gallup poll, with Republicans souring on the institution almost as quickly as Democrats have written it off. It’s a remarkable turn for a court that conservatives spent decades trying to shape, now finding themselves frustrated when it doesn’t deliver the outcomes they want.
Republican support for the high court has plummeted from 79% last September to just 58% today. The decline follows a string of rulings that handed major setbacks to the Trump administration: striking down executive orders ending automatic birthright citizenship, barring states from counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, invalidating sweeping emergency tariffs, and blocking the immediate removal of Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook.
Trump himself has turned his rhetoric against the court when decisions haven’t gone his way, despite the administration maintaining a win rate of 75% to 83% in cases before the justices. The conservative majority his three appointments established has delivered on key priorities—expanding presidential removal power over independent agency officials and upholding state restrictions on transgender athletes in women’s sports—but apparently that’s not enough when the court occasionally checks executive power.
Democrats, meanwhile, remain at historic lows with just 12% approval, essentially unchanged from September. Their disdain dates back to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and other liberal precedents. Independents sit at 35%, also near record lows. The result is an institution that has managed to alienate nearly everyone across the political spectrum.
The court’s overall disapproval rating has hit a record 61%. It’s a stark reminder that institutions don’t exist in a vacuum—when they become perceived as political actors rather than neutral arbiters, public trust evaporates. The question now is whether the justices can rebuild that trust or whether the court will continue its slide into being viewed as just another partisan battleground.
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