U.S. Supreme Court approval drops in new Marquette Law School Poll

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Approval rates for the U.S. Supreme Court continue to decline, according to a national Marquette Law School Poll.

In November, only 44% approved of the job that the country’s top court was doing, down from 50% in September. The court’s disapproval rate was 56%, up from 50% in September. The current 44% approval rate is the lowest since July 2024 when it was 43%.

There are substantial partisan differences in views of the Supreme Court, with Republicans having a higher approval rate (74%) than independents (33%) or Democrats (17%). Since September, Republicans’ net approval of the court fell by 14 points and independents’ net approval declined by 20 points. Democrats showed a smaller decline, only 4 points.

A majority — 56% — said they think the Supreme Court is going out of its way to avoid ruling against President Donald Trump, while 44% say it is not avoiding ruling against him. Those numbers are nearly the same as they were in September when 55% said the court was trying to avoid ruling against the president and 45% said it was not.

Overall, more Republicans think the court is not trying to avoid ruling against Trump while a majority of independents and a large majority of Democrats think the court is trying to avoid ruling against Trump.

Despite concerns the court may be trying to avoid ruling against the president, a large majority said the president must obey the rulings of the Supreme Court. In November, 84% said the president must follow the court’s rulings while only 16% said the president can ignore the court’s rulings.

When it comes to district courts ruling against Trump’s executive orders, 65% said such orders are a proper use of judicial authority while 35% said such orders are not appropriate. A majority of Republicans, 61%, said rulings blocking executive actions are not a proper use of judicial authority while 71% of independents and 89% of Democrats said they are an appropriate use of judicial power.

The poll was conducted Nov. 5-12, 2025, among 1,052 adults nationwide, with a margin of error of +/-3.3 percentage points.