For the first time in several years, the approval rating of the U.S. Supreme Court has exceeded 50%. 

One has to imagine that President Donald Trump is a large part of the reason why, considering that the court - thanks to Trump - has a conservative majority, which has been making big moves.

The poll comes from Marquette Law School. It was released last week, and the full results can be found here.

It was taken during a period from Jan. 27 to Feb. 5, 2025. The pollster surveyed some 1,018 adults nationwide. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The big finding

As stated, the Supreme Court has a rating of more than 50% approval.

The pollster found that the court currently has a 51% approval rating, or a 49% disapproval rating. This is the first time in three years that the court's approval rating exceeds 50%.

It dropped below the 50% threshold, at least on Marquette's polling, back in May 2022. It went from 54% approval during the preceding period to 44% - a 10 percentage point drop.

Between then and now, the court's approval rating dropped into the 30s twice, once during the second half of 2022 (38% approval) and once in 2024 (39% approval).

Even though the court's approval rating is on the rise, it is not as high as it used to be. Back in 2020, for example, the court's approval rating was up at 66%. That's a full 15 percentage points ahead of where it is now.

Why the sudden change?

It is not immediately clear - from the poll results - why the court's approval rating is suddenly on the rise.

If polls were strictly logical, then one would have to guess that the results are on the rise because the American public likes the decisions that the court has been making.

Yet, the poll results would suggest the opposite.

For example, 61% opposed the court's ruling on presidential immunity. And, 62% opposed the court's ruling in which it overturned Roe v. Wade. If there is majority opposition to such big decisions, then surely the approval rating should follow them, but it does not.

The Hill notes that, on the flip side:

Nearly two-thirds of adults, 62 percent, support the Supreme Court’s decision from last month to uphold the legislation that requires Chinese’ company ByteDance to sell video-sharing platform TikTok or face a ban, according to the survey. Another 38 percent are opposed to the ruling. President Trump has delayed the enforcement of the law that was passed with bipartisan support in Congress. It was set to take effect on Jan. 19.