Judiciary
Supreme Court approval rating reaches low point, while local courts get average grades
Neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor state and local courts are faring well in two recent polls. (Photo by Allison Robbert/The Washington Post)
Neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor state and local courts are faring well in two recent polls.
Record-low polling numbers for the Supreme Court are fueled by Democrats and political independents, while perceptions of state and local courts are worse among those with court experience.
Thirty-nine percent of Americans polled by Gallup approve of the job that the Supreme Court is doing. But only 11% of Democrats and 34% of political independents approve, according to an Aug. 7 Gallup summary. All are record lows.
Also setting a record was the 64 percentage-point gap between the 11% of Democrats who approve of the high court’s job and the 75% of Republicans who approve. The previous high was a 61 percentage-point gap after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
The results are based on a telephone poll of 1,002 people taken in July.
A separate poll by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 38% of people gave state and local courts a grade of “C.” Only about one-third gave grades of “A” or “B,” according to the results released Aug. 4.
Among the one-third of adults who said they or a member of their household had a case in local court at some point, 26% gave courts a “D” or “F” grade, compared to only 11% of those with no court experience.
The poll results show that individual or household experience with the court system can have a big impact. Sixty-seven percent said their emotional and mental health worsened a lot or somewhat after a lost case. And the same percentage said losing a case threatened their financial security a lot or somewhat.
The poll of 2,016 adults was taken in August and September 2024.
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