Trust in Supreme Court plummeted amid rise of 6-3 conservative court, new poll finds

Fewer than half of U.S. adults (46 percent) in a new survey say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the Supreme Court to operate in the best interests of Americans, a more than 20-point drop-off since pollsters last asked the question in 2019. 

Americans’ faith in the high court plummeted over roughly the same period that former President Trump’s three nominees transformed the court into a 6-3 conservative majority, according to the new polling from the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

In June, the conservative-dominated court voted to overrule Roe v. Wade, scuttling the constitutional right to abortion that had been the law of the land for nearly 50 years in a decision that was significantly out of step with public opinion. 

“Last term will be forever remembered as the term the court overruled Roe against Wade,” Irv Gornstein, executive director of Georgetown Law’s Supreme Court Institute, said last month. “For many, that was a cause for great celebration. For many others, it shattered their faith in the Supreme Court.”

The poll released Monday showed a sharp partisan divide, with just roughly one in three Democrats expressing a great deal or fair amount of trust in the court, compared to seven in 10 Republicans. Among independents, 44 percent expressed trust, down from 74 percent in 2019.

The court’s Republican-appointed justices also moved the court aggressively to the right on a range of other issues last term, issuing decisions along ideological lines to expand the Second Amendment and religious rights, while shrinking the U.S. government’s power to curb climate change.

According to the new survey, conducted in August, attitudes about the Supreme Court reflected a “growing perceptions that the justices are partisans just like any other politicians,” the pollsters wrote.

In the current nine-month court term, which began last week, the justices will review another slate of highly divisive issues, including affirmative action in higher education, voting rights and LGBTQ discrimination, with some legal experts predicting the conservative-dominated court to decide these disputes along ideological lines.

–Updated at 10:48 a.m.