Republicans Lose Trust in Supreme Court

A view of the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, June 13, 2024. Trust in the court's justices have declined among Republicans, a new poll shows.

Republicans are losing trust in the Supreme Court, a new poll shows.

Trust in the court has fallen by 14 percent among GOP voters over the last year, while that trust has remained fairly stagnant among Democrats, according to an Ipsos poll released Monday. Only 52 percent of Republicans say they trust the justices "a great deal" or "a fair amount," a drastic decline from the 66 percent who said the same thing in July 2023.

The Supreme Court has seen a rapid decline in public trust over recent years as its 5-4 majority tipped into a 6-3 conservative supermajority with the 2020 nomination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Over the last four years, the justices have delivered several controversial rulings that have been celebrated by conservative Americans and criticized by liberals.

Those include the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, the Second Amendment decision in Bruen that expanded gun rights across the country, a student loan decision that blocked President Joe Biden's debt forgiveness program, and an affirmative action decision that ended race-conscious admissions in higher education.

Last year's Gallup survey found that views of the Supreme Court remain near record lows, with only 43 percent approval in September 2023. The court saw its lowest approval rating in history in September 2021 at 40 percent. Approval had been 13 points higher a year before, with 53 percent support in September 2020.

Monday's poll from Ipsos reflects that trend. Among all respondents, only 39 percent said they trusted the Supreme Court, compared to the 43 percent who agreed in July 2023.

While Republican trust has declined drastically, Democratic trust in the Supreme Court only moved one percent over the last year—and, surprisingly, in the opposite direction. Still, Democrats have far less trust in the court, with only 29 percent saying they trust the justices "a great deal" or "a fair amount," compared to 28 percent who said they did in July 2023.

Similarly, trust among independent voters also remained steady, dropping only one percent over the last year from 41 percent in July 2023 to 40 percent this year.

The poll was conducted between June 7 and 9 among 1,027 respondents. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points.

Newsweek reached out to Ipsos for comment via email.

While trust in the Supreme Court is declining, Americans remain trustful of other judges within the judiciary. Overall, trust in state court judges rose three percent to 49 percent over the last year, and trust in federal judges four percent to 48 percent in the same time period.

Trust in these judges, however, is starkly higher among Democrats than Republicans. More than 60 percent of Democrats trust state court judges, compared to only 39 percent of Republicans, and 59 percent of Democrats trust federal judges, compared to just 41 percent of Republicans. Over half of independents trust both state court judges, 52 percent, and federal judges, 51 percent.

Chris Jackson, senior vice president of Ipsos' public affairs, told Newsweek that the decline in Republican trust is largely fueled by former President Donald Trump's criticisms of the judiciary.

Amid his four criminal cases and several civil cases, the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee for president has vocally criticized not only the prosecutors bringing the cases against him but also the judges who have ruled against him. In New York, Trump has attacked Judges Juan Merchan, Arthur Engoron and Lewis Kaplan over rulings unfavorable to him and the Trump Organization, accusing them of being "corrupt" and "conflicted."

"We see a broad-based decline of trust in all facets of the judiciary among Republicans," Jackson said. "My guess, supported by the data, is that this is the fruits of the efforts to undermine the credibility of the legal system by Donald Trump and his allies. Most people, and it appears many Republicans, don't differentiate from the Supreme Court vs. the New York criminal courts. For Trump supporters, it's all 'the system' and it's all 'corrupt.'"

Update 06/17/24, 9:37 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Chris Jackson.

Start your unlimited Newsweek trial