Poll Shock: Court Hits Rock Bottom

Hand showing thumbs down gesture, dark background. — POLL SHOCKER

Supreme Court approval just fell to its lowest point ever measured, and the drop is almost entirely a Republican story.

Quick Take

Only 33% of Americans now approve of the Supreme Court, a record low in Gallup’s 25-year trend.
Republican approval crashed to 58%, down from 79% a year earlier.
Democrat and independent approval barely moved, showing the shift is concentrated among Republicans.
The drop follows major 2026 rulings against President Trump on tariffs, birthright citizenship, and the Federal Reserve.

A Record Low Built Almost Entirely By One Party

Gallup’s new poll found 33% of Americans approve of the Supreme Court’s work, while 61% disapprove, both record numbers in the survey’s history. That marks a 6-point drop from the previous low set just last year. The headline number is striking on its own, but the real story sits inside the party breakdown, not the topline figure.

Republican approval of the Court fell to 58%, a massive slide from 79% recorded before this year’s rulings. Democrat and independent approval stayed roughly flat compared to last September. Semafor’s analysis of the same data confirmed the swing is driven almost entirely by Republicans souring on the Court, not by any broad national consensus forming against it.

Supreme Court approval hits record low as Republicans' support declines https://t.co/3aEWQziDNn

— CNBC Politics (@CNBCPolitics) July 28, 2026

What Changed The Republican Mood

Three rulings this term hit the Trump administration hard. In February, the Court struck down Trump’s sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs, ruling 6-3 that he exceeded his presidential power by imposing them unilaterally.

In June, the Court rejected his executive order limiting birthright citizenship, a 6-3 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts that reaffirmed the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee for children born on U.S. soil.

The Court also took up a case testing whether Trump could remove a Federal Reserve board member, a fight over the independence of the nation’s central bank. Taken together, these three cases represented direct setbacks on core priorities of Trump’s second-term agenda, and Republican voters noticed.

A Washington Post-Ipsos poll around the same period found 46% of Americans believed the Court was ruling on Trump’s policies based on ideology rather than the law.

Is This A Legal Problem Or A Political One

Here’s the fair question conservatives should ask before assuming the worst: did the justices get the law wrong, or did Republicans simply dislike losing? Gallup’s numbers measure opinion, not legal reasoning. Nothing in the polling data proves the tariff, citizenship, or Federal Reserve rulings misapplied precedent or ignored the Constitution’s text.

That distinction matters. A Court that rules against a Republican president on separation-of-powers grounds isn’t automatically “activist” just because the base is frustrated. The birthright citizenship ruling, for instance, rested on a straightforward reading of the Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship clause that has held since 1898. Disagreeing with a policy outcome is not the same as proving a judicial error.

A Court That Was Already Struggling

This didn’t happen in a vacuum. Gallup’s broader tracking shows Court approval has been stuck in the low 40s since 2021, and Pew found favorable views sitting near a three-decade low back in 2025, well before this year’s rulings landed. The institution was already fighting a trust deficit tied to years of Dobbs fallout, ethics controversies, and relentless partisan sniping from both sides of the aisle.

That context cuts against any simple story that three 2026 rulings alone tanked the Court’s reputation. It’s more accurate to say an already-weakened institution took a fresh hit when it delivered losses to a president many Republicans feel deserves more deference given the stakes he’s fighting for on trade, immigration, and monetary policy.

Supreme Court approval hits record low as Republicans’ support declines – CNBChttps://t.co/GVlY4JpAHY

— Open Outcrier (@OpenOutcrier) July 28, 2026

Why This Should Worry Everyone, Not Just One Side

A Supreme Court that only earns approval when it sides with your team isn’t a court anyone should want. Conservatives have spent decades arguing judges should call balls and strikes, not pick winners based on politics.

If Republicans now abandon that standard the moment rulings go against a Republican president, they undercut the very principle that gave the Court legitimacy through unpopular decisions for generations.

The honest takeaway is this: falling approval reflects real frustration with specific losses, not proof of judicial misconduct. Voters have every right to disagree with outcomes on tariffs, citizenship, or the Federal Reserve. But conflating disagreement with illegitimacy risks the same erosion of institutional trust conservatives have long criticized on the left.