Americans' confidence in U.S. courts hits record low
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Americans' confidence in the nation's courts and judicial systems has plummeted 24 percentage points in the past four years, sagging to a record low, per a new Gallup poll.
Why it matters: Not only does the decline make the U.S. an outlier among other wealthy nations, but it is one of the steepest drops Gallup has measured globally on this metric.
- The nine countries or territories with larger percentage-points drops in judicial system confidence over a four-year period include Myanmar (overlapping military rule), Venezuela (deep economic and political turmoil) and civil-war-era Syria.
Driving the news: Thirty-five percent of respondents said they had confidence in the U.S. judicial system and courts, per Gallup's poll.
- That's a drop from 42% last year.
By the numbers: Confidence in the courts has dropped for both those who approve and disapprove of U.S. leadership under President Biden.
- 2024 also marks the first time that confidence in the courts has been below 50% among both those who approve and those who disapprove of U.S. leadership.
- Only 44% of those who approve of U.S. leadership under Biden expressed confidence in the judicial system and courts in 2024.
- This year is the first on record that confidence in the judiciary among those who approve of U.S. leadership has dipped below 60%. Sentiment among this group remained steady between 2021 and 2023 before dropping this year.
Zoom out: While it's not abnormal for those who disapprove of their country's leadership to lose confidence in the judiciary over time, according to Gallup, the significant drop under Biden "signals that something profound occurred."
- It's likely, Gallup notes, that President-elect Trump's web of legal cases, which he has consistently railed against as politically motivated, was a notable factor.
- Similarly, the decline for those who approve of U.S. leadership could be tied to disapproval of some Supreme Court and lower court rulings that went in Trump's favor, per Gallup.
Zoom out: Americans' confidence in the courts lags far behind that of their peers in other wealthy nations.
- Between 2006 and 2020, Americans' perceptions of courts often fell in line with the median of countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a forum of 37 democracies with market-based economies. This year, the OECD median settled at 55% expressing confidence in courts.
- The decline in judiciary confidence in the U.S. has left the largest gap (20 points) between Americans and the median of OECD nations since the Gallup poll began in 2006.
Methodology: Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted June 28-Aug. 1, 2024, with random samples of 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, living in the United States. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Go deeper: Supreme Court's approval rating hits near-record lows
