As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to open its 2025-2026 term, a fresh wave of public opinion data paints a striking portrait of eroding confidence and deepening polarization surrounding the nation’s highest judicial body. According to a recent Gallup Poll, reported by both Gallup and United Press International (UPI), 43% of Americans now believe the Supreme Court is “too conservative”—the highest level ever recorded by the pollster, and a figure that underscores the growing chasm between the court’s decisions and the public’s perception of its ideological balance.
This new high-water mark in the court’s perceived conservatism comes at a time when its overall approval rating stands at a near record-low of 42% (with UPI reporting the figure as 43%), and less than half of Americans express even a fair amount of trust in the judicial branch. These numbers are a far cry from the court’s heyday: in 1999, Gallup found that the Supreme Court enjoyed an 80% approval rating, and between 1972 and 2020, its approval typically exceeded 60%. But the past fifteen years have seen a steady decline, driven largely by intensifying partisan divisions over the court’s direction and decisions.
To put these trends in perspective, before October 2020—when Justice Amy Coney Barrett was appointed by then-President Donald Trump to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—no more than 33% of Americans had ever described the court as “too conservative.” That changed dramatically after Barrett’s confirmation, which gave the court a 6-3 conservative majority. In 2021, Gallup measured 37% of respondents characterizing the court as too conservative, a figure that jumped to 42% following the court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade and opening the door for states to impose tight restrictions or outright bans on abortion.
Today, the ideological assessment of the court varies sharply depending on one’s political affiliation. Gallup’s September 2-16, 2025 Governance poll found that 75% of Democrats and 46% of independents say the Supreme Court is too conservative, compared with just 4% of Republicans. By contrast, a majority of Republicans (66%) describe the court as “about right,” and 28% even consider it “too liberal.” Among all Americans, 36% say the court is “about right,” and 17% believe it is “too liberal.”
This partisan split is even more pronounced when it comes to the court’s job approval. Gallup reports that 42% of Americans approve of the way the Supreme Court is handling its job, while 52% disapprove—a level that has hovered in the low 40% range since 2021. The current 65-point gap in job approval between Republicans (79%) and Democrats (14%) is the largest ever recorded by Gallup, surpassing even the notable 64-point gap observed in July. For context, the average party gap in Supreme Court approval between 2000 and 2020 was just 22 points.
These numbers are more than just statistics; they reflect a seismic shift in the court’s relationship with the American people. According to Gallup, “One major reason that approval of the Supreme Court has been lower in the past 15 years is that its ratings have become increasingly split along party lines.” The trend is unmistakable: while Republicans’ current job approval rating for the court nearly matches the record 80% for the group set in January 2001 (shortly after the court ruled in favor of Republican George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election dispute), Democrats’ and independents’ ratings are hovering near their lowest points ever recorded.
Trust in the broader judicial branch, which the Supreme Court heads, has also tumbled. Just 49% of Americans say they have either “a great deal” (16%) or “a fair amount” (33%) of trust in the federal judicial system—a level that matches the low point from 2022. Meanwhile, 29% of Americans say they do not have very much trust in the court, and 22% have none at all. Historically, trust in the judicial branch did not slip below a majority until 2022; between 1972 and 2020, readings usually exceeded 60%, peaking at 80% in 1999.
As with job approval, trust in the judiciary is sharply divided along party lines. Gallup found that 81% of Republicans have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the federal judicial system, compared with just 23% of Democrats and 44% of independents. The 58-point trust gap between Republicans and Democrats is the highest ever measured, exceeding last year’s record by 11 points. For Democrats, this is the lowest level of trust Gallup has ever recorded for any party group in its trend—by one point compared to 2024, and two points compared to 2022. Yet it’s worth noting that trust has reached similarly high levels for both parties at different times in the past, with 87% of Democrats expressing trust in 2009 and 86% of Republicans in 2008.
What’s driving these dramatic shifts? Much of the current disaffection, particularly among Democrats, can be traced to the court’s ideological makeup and a series of high-profile rulings that have favored Republican policy preferences. The 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade, stands out as a watershed moment, intensifying perceptions of the court’s conservative tilt. According to Gallup, “Much of these depressed ratings are a result of Democrats’ minimal trust in an institution they believe is too conservative.”
Yet the court has not always been seen as leaning right. There have been periods in the past when significant portions of the public viewed the court as “too liberal.” For example, in 2015 and 2016, after the court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide and upheld the Affordable Care Act, 37% of Americans said the court was too liberal. In almost every other year—except for 2022 and the current year—a plurality has described the court as “about right.”
Gallup’s long-running polling offers a unique window into how Americans’ views of the court ebb and flow in response to its ideological direction and major decisions. As the 2025-2026 term begins, the Supreme Court faces not just a docket of consequential cases, but a crisis of confidence among large swathes of the public. Whether the institution can regain the broad trust it once enjoyed remains an open question, but one thing is clear: the court’s place at the center of America’s political and cultural battles is as contested—and consequential—as ever.
