Gallup: “Forty-seven percent of U.S. adults say they have “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of trust in the judicial branch of the federal government that is headed by the Supreme Court. This represents a 20-percentage-point drop from two years ago, including seven points since last year, and is now the lowest in Gallup’s trend by six points. The judicial branch’s current tarnished image contrasts with trust levels exceeding two-thirds in most years in Gallup’s trend that began in 1972. Approval of the Supreme Court fell from 49% in July 2021 to 40% last September, just after the court allowed a restrictive Texas abortion law to go into effect and allowed colleges’ COVID-19 vaccination requirements to stand. In July 2022, 43% approved after the Court’s ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that struck down the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had limited states’ abilities to restrict abortion. The Supreme Court has seen its job approval dip into the low 40s before, including 42% ratings in 2005 and 2016 and 43% in 2013.

A third measure of the high court, from Gallup’s June Confidence in Institutions poll, found confidence in the Supreme Court also at a new low. That poll was conducted before the court issued the Dobbs decision but after the leak of a draft opinion in that case signaled that the court was poised to overturn Roe. By all Gallup measures, then, Americans’ opinions of the Supreme Court are the worst they have been in 50 years of polling…”