Supreme Court Approval Slides to 43% in New Marquette Poll

A new Marquette Law School Poll finds Supreme Court approval fell to 43% from 47% in July, with 89% backing a strict ethics code for justices.

A new Marquette Law School Poll national survey finds approval of the United States Supreme Court dipped to 43% in September, down from 47% in July, while disapproval rose to 57% from 53%. According to Marquette, the 43% approval is the second-lowest rating since January 2025, when the current polling series showed the Court near 51%. The survey was conducted September 2-9, 2026, interviewing 1,023 adults nationwide, with a margin of error of +/-3.3 percentage points. The decline is notable because it follows a Court term in which several prominent decisions rejected Trump administration arguments, yet public perception of the Court still tilted toward the administration.

Approval slipped by three percentage points among both Republicans and Democrats, while ticking up a single point among independents, according to Marquette. Republican approval fell to 71%, continuing a gradual decline from 84% in February 2025. Independents stand at 36%, a recovery from the recent low of 26% in January 2026 but still ten points below the 46% recorded in February 2025. Democratic approval sits at 19%, similar to most 2026 readings and down from a Trump-term high of 31% in March and May 2025. The broad-based erosion, including among the president's own party, underscores how the mail-ballot fight has compounded the Court's image problems across the political spectrum.

The perception that the Court has sided with the Trump administration rose by five points in September. Marquette reports that 60% of adults say the Court has ruled in favor of the administration often or fairly often since the beginning of Trump's second term, up from 55% in July and returning to about the 61% level of May. By party, 75% of Democrats say the Court has ruled for Trump often or fairly often, compared with 56% of independents and 46% of Republicans. Separately, 54% of adults say the Court is going out of its way to avoid making a ruling that Trump might refuse to obey, a view held by 78% of Democrats, 57% of independents, and just 28% of Republicans — a Republican low since the question was first asked.

The poll lands just days after the Supreme Court on September 14 left in place a preliminary injunction blocking the U.S. Postal Service from implementing new mail-ballot restrictions for the midterms. The Brennan Center for Justice, which represents the coalition of voter service organizations that sued, reports the unsigned three-sentence order stated the government 'is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge,' with Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissenting.

Despite modest public attention to the Court itself — just 24% of adults say they heard a lot about the Court in the past month, per Marquette — various 'Court reform' proposals receive majority support. Marquette finds 89% support enforcing a strict ethics code for the justices, 78% support limiting terms for justices, and 53% support expanding the number of justices. Attention varies sharply by news source: 56% of the MS Now (formerly MSNBC) audience and 53% of Newsmax's audience heard a lot about the Court, compared with 26% to 27% of Fox News, podcast, and social media audiences. Notably, 54% of the Newsmax audience heard a lot about reform proposals, slightly more than heard a lot about the Court.

The ruling on mail ballots does not settle the underlying legal dispute. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to clear the way for using the DHS's Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database to identify noncitizens on state voter rolls, and challengers filed their response on Tuesday, according to SCOTUSblog. With approval sliding and reform proposals polling strongly, the Court's standing — and its handling of election disputes — will remain under scrutiny through the midterms.