One thing voters agree on: They don't like the Supreme Court - The Boston Globe

When Glinda in “Wicked” crooned, “Popular, you’re gonna be popular,” she was definitely not singing to the justices of the Supreme Court.

According to a new NBC News poll, American voters’ confidence in the court has sunk to its lowest point since the survey question was first asked 26 years ago.

Only 22 percent of respondents said they had a “great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence in the high court, while 40 percent reported “some” confidence in the court, and 38 percent said they had “very little” or “no” confidence.

The poll was conducted after the justices issued a ruling Feb. 20 striking down President Trump’s emergency tariffs, holding that federal law did not give Trump the power to impose them.

That may be an important point, since a major cause of the overall dip in public support comes from Republicans souring on the court. In 2024, a majority of GOP voters — 53 percent — reported high confidence in the court. That number has dropped to a mere 35 percent in the latest poll. Meanwhile the percentage of Democrats reporting high confidence has inched up slightly in the same time frame, from 4 percent in 2024 (in the wake of the court’s rulings granting Trump broad immunity for acts committed in office) to 9 percent in the latest poll.

This is not very surprising given that overall confidence in the court has been slipping for the better part of the past decade. But the precipitous drop in the court’s popularity particularly in recent years is worth noting. Based on the poll, the court experienced a major additional blow to its reputation in 2022, fresh off the Dobbs decision that struck down Roe v. Wade and ushered in a wave of draconian abortion laws in mostly red states across the country.

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It also shows that public sentiment has dipped amid justices’ increased use of the shadow docket, where cases do not get full briefing or argument — especially in challenges to Trump’s policies and actions. And this is increasingly true even with conservative Americans.

This should hit the justices with the urgency of a five-alarm fire, particularly Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., long hailed as an institutionalist who cares deeply about the court’s legitimacy and historical standing. People often ask what it would mean for a president to refuse to abide by a Supreme Court ruling. But a question that is just as important is, what happens when the public no longer sees the Supreme Court as legitimate? This, to me, would represent an even bigger blow to the foundations of our democracy. And this survey is the latest evidence that we are dangerously close to that point.

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This is an excerpt from *The Gavel*, a newsletter about the Supreme Court from columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. *Sign up to get The Gavel in your inbox every Wednesday evening.*

Kimberly Atkins Stohr is a columnist for the Globe. She may be reached at [email protected].