Coverage spread: 2 sources — 2 center
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
What the poll found
A new Gallup poll shows the U.S. Supreme Court’s job approval rating among all Americans has fallen to a record-low 33%, down 6 percentage points from the previous low of 39% recorded in July 2025. Disapproval of the court has climbed to a record-high 61%, up from 52% in September 2025. Gallup has tracked public approval of the court for 26 years, conducting the survey each July, after the term concludes, and again in September, before the new term begins. The latest results come from telephone interviews with 1,200 adults conducted July 1–19, with a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points.
The most striking shift is among Republicans, whose approval of the court dropped to 58% from a near-record 79% in September 2025 — the lowest Republican approval level in nearly three years. Gallup suggests this decline likely reflects several rulings this term that went against the Trump administration, including decisions on tariffs and birthright citizenship, which appear to weigh more heavily on Republican opinion than rulings that favored President Trump and the GOP.
The rulings behind the shift
During its recently concluded term, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump lacked authority to impose broad tariffs on imports from most countries under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. It also struck down a Trump executive order that sought to sharply narrow the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, and it rejected the administration’s attempt to summarily remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook while litigation over her firing continues. At the same time, the administration secured notable victories, including a ruling that expanded a president’s power to fire members of nominally independent federal agencies.
Despite the drop among Republicans, Democrats’ and independents’ views of the court barely moved. Only 12% of Democrats approve of the court’s performance, and 35% of independents do — both essentially unchanged from September 2025. Gallup notes that Democratic approval has remained among the lowest of any party group in its polling history over the past five years, a period coinciding with the court’s 6-3 conservative majority.
How the coverage compares
CNBC’s report provides the fullest account of the poll’s methodology and findings, detailing the specific approval and disapproval percentages across party lines, the timing and structure of Gallup’s twice-yearly survey, and the specific rulings — on tariffs, birthright citizenship, and the Lisa Cook firing attempt — that Gallup links to the drop in Republican approval. It also includes Gallup’s direct commentary explaining that unfavorable rulings toward the administration appear to carry more weight with Republican respondents than favorable ones. The Hill’s article on the same subject was not available with text for comparison, so it is unclear what additional emphasis or framing that outlet applied, though its headline reference to “Republican support falls” suggests it centers on the same central finding — the sharp decline in GOP approval — as its main angle.
Why it matters
The findings illustrate how public perception of the Supreme Court has become closely tied to how its rulings align with the political fortunes of the sitting president, rather than remaining stable across administrations. The sharp swing in Republican approval — from a near-record high to a three-year low in just months — underscores that even a conservative-majority court is not immune to partisan backlash when its decisions cut against a Republican president’s agenda, such as the tariff and birthright citizenship rulings against Trump. Meanwhile, persistently low approval among Democrats, sustained over five years of a 6-3 conservative majority, points to a broader, more entrenched erosion of trust across the political spectrum. Taken together, the record-low overall approval and record-high disapproval suggest the court is entering its new term with historically weak public confidence, a dynamic that could shape debates over its legitimacy and independence in the months ahead.
Sources
Featured photo: Original: Optimager Vector: Ipankonin via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)