US Supreme Court sees 9-point approval rating increase after busy term

After a busy end to the 2024-2025 term, voters have a more positive view of the Supreme Court. In fact, the high court currently holds its highest approval rating since 2020.

The latest Fox News survey finds 47% of voters approve of the job SCOTUS is doing, a 9-point jump since last July, when a record low 38% approved.

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The increase in approval is widespread, but especially among independents (up 16 points), women (+15), Republicans (+14), and voters under age 30 (+12).

“Over the past decade, public confidence in our major institutions has declined,” says Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who helps conduct the Fox News survey with Democrat Chris Anderson. “The Court’s rebound could reflect its attempts to steer a middle course on politically polarizing questions or indicate an uptick in positive attitudes toward our more venerable institutions.”

The numbers still fall short of the court’s 54% approval rating in 2020 (the last time it was above 50%) or the record high 58% in 2017. At that time, majorities of Democrats (65%) and independents (55%) and half of Republicans (50%) approved.

The survey, released Wednesday, shows 50% of voters disapprove of the court’s performance, down from 60% last year. Those most likely to disapprove are Democrats (78%), liberals (75%), and Black voters (61%), while the highest approval is among Republicans (76%), conservatives (74%), and White, evangelical Christians (66%).

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The share saying partisanship frequently plays a role in the court’s decisions decreased 9 points since 2024 (from 42% to 33%) and that downward shift is seen across all demographics. Another 44% say partisanship plays a role sometimes and 20% say hardly ever or never.

Still, by more than 2-to-1, more voters think SCOTUS is too conservative (43%) than too liberal in its decisions (18%, a low), while 36% think the court’s rulings are about right. That’s roughly where sentiment was last summer, when a record high 45% felt the court was too conservative, 19% said too liberal, and 33% said about right.

Voters have felt the Court has been too conservative rather than too liberal since July 2018. The last time voters felt it was too liberal was in February 2017 when 31% said liberal and 18% conservative – a plurality of voters, and a record high, felt the court was about right in decisions (47%).

Today, Democrats feel the strongest about the conservative leaning of the Court: 72% think it’s too conservative, while 17% say it is about right, and 8% say too liberal. In 2017, it was 29%, 60%, and 8%, respectively.

A 56% majority of Republicans say the Court is about right in its decisions, while 29% say too liberal, and 14% too conservative.  In 2017, it was 32%, 59%, and 5%, respectively.

Attitudes among independents are more balanced, with 40% saying the Court is too conservative, 36% about right, and 18% too liberal. In 2017, it was 16%, 48%, and 26%, respectively.

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Conducted July 18-21, 2025, under the direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News survey includes interviews with a sample of 1,000 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (114) and cellphones (636) or completed the survey online after receiving a text (250). Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points. Sampling error for results among subgroups is higher. In addition to sampling error, question wording and order can influence results. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education, and area variables to ensure the demographics of respondents are representative of the registered voter population. Sources for developing weight targets include the American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis and voter file data.