Survey Shows Increased Approval for Supreme Court
Following a busy end to the 2024-2025 term, public perception of the Supreme Court has turned more favorable. Currently, the Court enjoys its highest approval rating since 2020.
A recent Fox News survey indicates that 47% of voters are satisfied with the Supreme Court’s performance.
This approval increase is noticeable across various demographics, particularly among independents, who saw a 16-point rise, women (+15), Republicans (+14), and voters under 30 (+12).
Republican pollster Daron Shaw remarked, “In the last decade, public confidence in our major institutions has dropped. The Court’s recovery may be a sign of efforts to navigate politically charged issues or a shift in public sentiment towards traditionally respected institutions.”
Nevertheless, the current rating still falls short of 54% recorded in 2020, which was the last time approval exceeded 50%. The peak approval was 58% in 2017, when 65% of Democrats, 55% of independents, and half of Republicans expressed support.
A survey released on Wednesday revealed that 50% of voters approved of the Court’s performance, a drop from 60% last year. Disapproval rates were highest among Democrats (78%), liberals (75%), and Black voters (61%), while approval was strongest among Republicans (76%), conservatives (74%), and white evangelical Christians (66%).
The frequency of partisan identity has decreased by nine percentage points since 2024, now sitting at 33%. Around 44% of respondents feel they engage in partisan roles, while 20% say they rarely identify that way.
More than double the amount of voters believe the Supreme Court leans conservative (43%) rather than too liberal (18%), with 36% affirming the Court’s rulings as appropriate. This echoes sentiments from the previous summer, where 45% felt the Court was excessively conservative.
Notably, voters have considered the Court too conservative since July 2018. Back in February 2017, 31% identified as liberal, while only 18% saw it as conservative. That same month, a record high of 47% felt the Court was liberal.
Currently, 72% of Democrats perceive the Court as overly conservative, with just 17% saying its decisions are right and 8% believing it’s too liberal. In contrast, in 2017, those figures were 29%, 60%, and 8%, respectively.
Among Republicans, 56% think the Court is somewhat out of touch, while 29% see it as too liberal and 14% view it as too conservative. This contrasts with 2017, when those figures were 32%, 59%, and 5%.
Independents show a more mixed perspective: 40% think the Court is too conservative, 36% feel it’s right, and 18% say it leans liberal. Back in 2017, those numbers were 16%, 48%, and 26%.
The Fox News Survey was conducted from July 18-21, 2025, using a sample of 1,000 randomly selected registered voters grouped by various demographics. The margin of sampling error stands at ±3 percentage points, with higher rates for subgroups. Additionally, factors like wording and question order may influence the results.
