TRUST ISSUES

Over Half of Americans Distrust Current Supreme Court, New Survey Reveals

A new Annenberg Public Policy Center survey, conducted in August 2022, reveals that more than 50 percent of Americans disapprove of the court.

A new Annenberg Public Policy Center survey shows that over half of Americans find the current Supreme Court unacceptable. The responses to the August survey, which polled 1,113 people, suggest that 53 percent of U.S. adults disapprove of how the court handles its job. “Whether the perceptions registered in our survey are justified or not, they are worrisome,” said Annenberg Public Policy Center Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson. “For the court to play its role in our system of government, it is important that it be perceived to be an independent branch that impartially and fairly bases its decisions on the Constitution, the law, and the facts of the case.” The survey also found a major rift between what Americans value in Supreme Court judges, like “fairness and impartiality,” and the actual behavior of the current justices. These results come just a few months after the Court controversially overturned Roe vs. Wade.