MILWAUKEE – A new Marquette Law School Poll national survey finds that 45% of adults approve of the job the U.S. Supreme Court is doing and 55% disapprove. While approval remains below disapproval, this is a 4-percentage point increase in approval since May and the second highest rating since March 2022, when approval stood at 54%. The trend in approval since 2020 is shown in Table 1. (All results in the tables are stated as percentages; the precise wording of the questions can be found in the online link noted above.) For each of five June 2023 decisions inquired about, a plurality of people with an opinion favored the Court’s ruling, as discussed after the first two tables.
Table 1: Supreme Court approval
Among adults
| Poll dates | Approval | |
| Approve | Disapprove | |
| 7/7-12/23 | 45 | 55 |
| 5/8-18/23 | 41 | 59 |
| 3/13-22/23 | 44 | 56 |
| 1/9-20/23 | 47 | 53 |
| 11/15-22/22 | 44 | 56 |
| 9/7-14/22 | 40 | 60 |
| 7/5-12/22 | 38 | 61 |
| 5/9-19/22 | 44 | 55 |
| 3/14-24/22 | 54 | 45 |
| 1/10-21/22 | 52 | 46 |
| 11/1-10/21 | 54 | 46 |
| 9/7-16/21 | 49 | 50 |
| 7/16-26/21 | 60 | 39 |
| 9/8-15/20 | 66 | 33 |
| Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, July 7-12, 2023 | ||
| Question: Overall, how much do you approve or disapprove of the way the U.S. Supreme Court is handling its job? | ||
Approval among Republicans rose by 12 percentage points, to 71% in July, up from 59% in May. Approval among independents rose 2 percentage points, while among Democrats it declined 2 percentage points from May to July. Approval of the Court by party identification is shown in Table 2 for July and for May.
Table 2: Approval of the Supreme Court, with party identification, May and July 2023
Among adults
| Party ID | Approval | |
| Approve | Disapprove | |
| July 2023 | ||
| Total | 45 | 55 |
| Republican | 71 | 29 |
| Independent | 40 | 60 |
| Democrat | 24 | 76 |
| May 2023 | ||
| Total | 41 | 59 |
| Republican | 59 | 41 |
| Independent | 38 | 62 |
| Democrat | 26 | 74 |
| Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, July 7-12, 2023 | ||
| Question: Overall, how much do you approve or disapprove of the way the U.S. Supreme Court is handling its job? | ||
Other headlines
- Each of five decisions released in June 2023 and included in the survey found a plurality of support, with at least two-thirds awareness in cases involving race in college admissions, student-loan forgiveness, and religious beliefs and free speech:
- Half of all respondents, 50%, favored the Court’s decision that colleges cannot use race as one of several factors in deciding which applicants to admit, while 37% favored the decision against President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program and 35% favored the decision that a business owner’s religious beliefs or free speech rights can justify refusing some services to gay people. About a third of those surveyed had not heard enough to weigh in on the decisions.
- Cases involving the need for employers to accommodate religious practices and Alabama’s congressional map elicited awareness of only about one-third of respondents:
- A ruling that federal civil rights law requires an employer to accommodate an employee’s religious practice was favored by 27%, but 63% had not heard enough to have an opinion. Similarly, 24% favored the ruling that Alabama, in drawing a congressional districting map, had diluted the power of Black voters, in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but 66% had not heard enough.
The latest Marquette Law School Poll’s national Supreme Court survey was conducted July 7-12, 2023. The survey interviewed 1,005 adults nationwide and has a margin of error of +/-4 percentage points.
Confidence in the Court as an institution rose in July, with 31% of respondents saying they have a great deal or a lot of confidence in the Court, an increase from May when 25% said the same. The full trend is shown in Table 3.
Table 3: Confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court
Among adults
| Poll dates | Confidence | ||
| Great deal/a lot | Some | Little/None | |
| 7/7-12/23 | 31 | 32 | 37 |
| 5/8-18/23 | 25 | 36 | 39 |
| 3/13-22/23 | 28 | 40 | 32 |
| 1/9-20/23 | 31 | 38 | 31 |
| 11/15-22/22 | 30 | 36 | 34 |
| 9/7-14/22 | 30 | 34 | 36 |
| 7/5-12/22 | 28 | 28 | 44 |
| 9/8-15/20 | 39 | 45 | 16 |
| 9/3-13/19 | 37 | 42 | 20 |
| Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, July 7-12, 2023 | |||
| Question: Here is a list of institutions in American society. How much confidence do you have in each one? . . . The U.S. Supreme Court. | |||
Confidence in Congress and in the presidency also increased from May to July, though by less than confidence in the Court. In July, 14% said they had a great deal or a lot of confidence in Congress, up from 11% in May. Those saying the same about the presidency were 28% in July, compared to 25% in May. These trends are shown in Table 4 and Table 5.
Table 4: Confidence in Congress
Among adults
| Poll dates | Confidence | ||
| Great deal/a lot | Some | Little/None | |
| 7/7-12/23 | 14 | 44 | 43 |
| 5/8-18/23 | 11 | 41 | 49 |
| 3/13-22/23 | 15 | 43 | 42 |
| 1/9-20/23 | 13 | 43 | 44 |
| 11/15-22/22 | 17 | 43 | 40 |
| 9/7-14/22 | 16 | 37 | 47 |
| 7/5-12/22 | 10 | 35 | 56 |
| 9/8-15/20 | 13 | 42 | 44 |
| 9/3-13/19 | 10 | 39 | 51 |
| Marquette Law School Poll, national survey, July 7-12, 2023 | |||
| Question: Here is a list of institutions in American society. How much confidence do you have in each one? . . . Congress. | |||
Table 5: Confidence in the presidency
Among adults
| Poll dates | Confidence | ||
| Great deal/a lot | Some | Little/None | |
| 7/7-12/23 | 28 | 32 | 40 |
| 5/8-18/23 | 25 | 30 | 45 |
| 3/13-22/23 | 26 | 34 | 40 |
| 1/9-20/23 | |||
