MILWAUKEE — A new Marquette Law School poll finds that 44% of adults approve of the job the U.S. Supreme Court is doing, while 56% disapprove. This is a slight decline from January, when 47% approved and 53% disapproved. Approval of the Court’s work fell to a low of 38% in July 2022, and voting gradually increased every other month until this new poll. In all of these surveys since the middle of last year, approval has remained well below the 60% rate since July 2021.
Shown in the approval trend from 2020 Table 1. (All results in the tables are reported as percentages; the exact wording of the questions can be found in the online link above.)
Table 1 (right): Overall, how much do you approve or disapprove of the way the US Supreme Court is handling its work?
| polling dates | approve | rejected |
| 9/8-15/20 | 66 | 33 |
| 7/16-26/21 | 60 | 39 |
| 9/7-16/21 | 49 | 50 |
| 11/1-10/21 | 54 | 46 |
| 1/10-21/22 | 52 | 46 |
| 3/14-24/22 | 54 | 45 |
| 5/9-19/22 | 44 | 55 |
| 7/5-12/22 | 38 | 61 |
| 9/7-14/22 | 40 | 60 |
| 11/15-22/22 | 44 | 56 |
| 1/9-20/23 | 47 | 53 |
| 3/13-22/23 | 44 | 56 |
The latest Marquette Law School Poll’s National Supreme Court survey was conducted March 13-22, 2023. The survey interviewed 1,004 adults nationwide and has a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percentage points.
Unlike the recent July 2021 minimum differences, partisan differences in approval of the Court are quite evident in current polling. Table 2 shows approval by partisans then and now.
Table 2: Overall, by party identification, how much do you approve or disapprove of the way the US Supreme Court is doing its job?
(A) March 2023
| party id | approve | rejected |
| republican | 66 | 34 |
| Independent | 39 | 61 |
| democrat | 28 | 72 |
| party id | approve | rejected |
| republican | 57 | 42 |
| Independent | 61 | 37 |
| democrat | 59 | 40 |
In March, approval among Democrats was 7 percentage points lower than it was in January, and it was also 3 points lower among independents than it was in January. Approval among Republicans was 1 point lower than in early 2023 polling.
Table 3: Court approvals by party identity, September 2020-Jan. 2023
| polling dates | republican | Independent | democrat |
| 9/8-15/20 | 80 | 64 | 57 |
| 7/16-26/21 | 57 | 61 | 59 |
| 9/7-16/21 | 61 | 51 | 37 |
| 11/1-10/21 | 61 | 53 | 49 |
| 1/10-21/22 | 60 | 52 | 45 |
| 3/14-24/22 | 64 | 51 | 52 |
| 5/9-19/22 | 71 | 38 | 28 |
| 7/5-12/22 | 67 | 39 | 15 |
| 9/7-14/22 | 65 | 34 | 24 |
| 11/15-22/22 | 70 | 40 | 28 |
| 1/9-20/23 | 67 | 42 | 35 |
| 3/13-22/23 | 66 | 39 | 28 |
Unlike Congress or the President, the Supreme Court is not constantly in the news. Rather, coverage is centered around the announcement of decisions and, to a lesser extent, the arguments of cases or the appointment of judges. This fluctuating pattern of news means that the public cannot hear about most cases before they are decided.
In March, 17% said they had heard or read a lot about “the Supreme Court case concerning the use of race in college admissions,” 50% had heard a little, and 32% had heard nothing. cases, President and Fellows of Harvard College v. Students for Fair Admissions Inc. And Students vs. University of North Carolina for Fair Admissions Arguments were made on 31 October. In a national November 2022 Marquette Law School poll, conducted shortly after the oral arguments, 20% had heard a lot, 45% had heard a little, and 34% had heard nothing about the cases.
The public was more aware of a set of cases related to student loan forgiveness, argued Feb. 28, 2023, Biden v. Nebraska And Department of Education v. Brown, 50 percent said they’ve heard a lot about it, 41 percent a little and 10 percent haven’t heard anything.
Awareness of two cases related to social media companies was low, argued February 21-22, Gonzalez v. Google LLC And bye twitter, Nine percent said they heard a lot, 51 percent said a little, and 40 percent heard nothing.
US Supreme Court justices are generally not well known among the public, with the majority of the public saying they do not know enough about most justices to give a favorable or unfavorable opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas is the most widely known and Justice Elena Kagan the least well known, as shown in Table 4.
Table 4: Some Supreme Court justices are better known than others. For each of these names, have you never heard of them, heard of them but don’t know enough about them to have an opinion, have a favorable opinion or have an unfavorable opinion?
| Justice | Friendly | Adverse | unable to rate |
| Samuel Alito | 15 | 16 | 69 |
| Amy Coney Barrett | 22 | 27 | 51 |
| Neil Gorsuch | 18 | 15 | 67 |
| Ketanji Brown Jackson | 26 | 15 | 59 |
| Elena Kagan | 17 | 10 | 73 |
| Brett Cavanaugh | 25 | 34 | 41 |
| john roberts | 25 | 15 | 60 |
| Sonia Sotomayor | 34 | 15 | 52 |
| Clarence Thomas | 29 | 32 | 38 |
While knowledge about justices is fairly limited, partisans hold divergent views on justices. Republicans give net favorable ratings to judges appointed by Republican presidents and net unfavorable ratings to judges appointed by Democratic presidents. Democrats do the opposite, except in the case of Chief Justice John Roberts, who has a net favorable rating across all partisan groups. Table 5 shows the net approval-minus-rejection by party identity.
Table 5: Net Favorable-Debt-Unfavorable Rating by Party Identity
| Justice | republican | Independent | democrat |
| alito | 16 | -3 | -19 |
| barrett | 37 | -12 | -40 |
| gorsach | 24 | 2 | -18 |
| jackson | -16 | 6 | 46 |
| Kagan | -6 | 4 | 25 |
| kavanaugh | 46 | -16 | -55 |
| roberts | 19 | 6 | 6 |
| sotomayor | -9 | 15 | 52 |
| thomas | 46 | -4 | -53 |
The public is skeptical about allowing the use of race in admissions to college programs, with 33% favoring a decision that would ban the use of race and 17% opposed. The matter is not yet top of most respondents’ minds, however, with 50% saying they haven’t heard anything about such a matter or haven’t heard enough to have an opinion.
Voting on the subject since September 2021 has seen consistent opposition to the use of race in admissions. Table 6(a) shows views including those who have not heard enough about the issue, and Table 6(b) shows the percentages for those with only one opinion.
Table 6: Do you support or oppose the following possible future Supreme Court rulings, or have you not heard enough about them to have an opinion? The rule is that colleges cannot use race as one of several factors in deciding which applicants to admit.
(A) among all the respondents
| polling dates | hear nothing / not enough | pronounce such a verdict | Oppose |
| 9/7-16/21 | 33 | 53 | 13 |
| 3/14-24/22 | 33 | 49 | 17 |
| 9/7-14/22 | 50 | 37 | 13 |
