--- title: "Supreme Court’s Favorability Edges Below 50%" description: "Overview The Supreme Court’s favorability rating has edged below 50% for the first time in nearly three decades of Pew Research Center polling. Currently, 48% have a favorable opinion of the court while 38% have an unfavorable opinion. In March, before the court’s end-of-term decisions on same-sex marriage and the Voting Rights Act, 52% had […]" date: "2013-07-24" authors: - name: "Pew Research Center" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/07/24/supreme-courts-favorability-edges-below-50/" categories: - "Federal Government" - "Supreme Court" datasets: - name: "July 2013 Political Survey" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/dataset/july-2013-political-survey/" --- # Supreme Court’s Favorability Edges Below 50% ## Table of Contents 1. [Supreme Court’s Favorability Edges Below 50%](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/07/24/supreme-courts-favorability-edges-below-50/markdown) - [Views of Court’s Ideology](#views-of-courts-ideology) 2. [About the Survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/07/24/about-the-survey-183/markdown) ## Overview [![Supreme Court's Declining Favorability.](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/07/Supreme-Courts-Declining-Favorability.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/07/24/supreme-courts-favorability-edges-below-50/supreme-courts-declining-favorability/) The Supreme Court’s favorability rating has edged below 50% for the first time in nearly three decades of Pew Research Center polling. Currently, 48% have a favorable opinion of the court while 38% have an unfavorable opinion. [In March](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/03/25/supreme-courts-favorable-rating-still-at-historic-low/), before the court’s end-of-term decisions on same-sex marriage and the Voting Rights Act, 52% had a favorable impression of the Supreme Court while 31% had an unfavorable opinion. The national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted July 17-21 among 1,480 adults nationwide, finds that African Americans’ views of the court have become much more negative in the aftermath of the court’s decisions. In March, 61% of blacks viewed the court favorably while 24% had an unfavorable opinion. [![Blacks View Supreme Court Much Less Favorably](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/07/Blacks-View-Supreme-Court-Much-Less-Favorably.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/07/24/supreme-courts-favorability-edges-below-50/blacks-view-supreme-court-much-less-favorably/) Today, their opinions are divided (44% favorable vs. 41% unfavorable). This is among the lowest favorable ratings for the Supreme Court among blacks in polling dating to 1985. [![Less Partisan Views of Court than After Last Year's Health Care Rating](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/07/Less-Partisan-Views-of-Court-than-After-Last-Years-Health-Care-Rating.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/07/24/supreme-courts-favorability-edges-below-50/less-partisan-views-of-court-than-after-last-years-health-care-rating/) The survey finds that partisan differences in opinions about the Supreme Court – which widened substantially last year after the court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act – have narrowed since then. Currently, 54% of Democrats, 48% of Republicans and 47% of independents express favorable opinions of the court. [Last July](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2012/07/12/section-2-the-supreme-court-and-health-care/), there was a 26-point partisan gap in favorable views of the court: 64% of Democrats viewed the court favorably compared with just 38% of Republicans. Since then, favorable ratings of the court have declined 10 points among Democrats, while increasing by 10 points among Republicans. Independents’ views have shown less change (47% favorable today, 51% last July). ### Views of Court’s Ideology [![Many Conservatives View the Court as Liberal; Many Liberals View It as Conservative](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/07/Many-Conservatives-View-the-Court-as-Liberal-Many-Liberals-View-It-as-Conservative.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/07/24/supreme-courts-favorability-edges-below-50/many-conservatives-view-the-court-as-liberal-many-liberals-view-it-as-conservative/) As was the case in March, conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats have contrasting opinions about the Supreme Court’s ideology. Half (50%) of conservative Republicans say the court is liberal, compared with just 8% who say it is conservative (35% say it is “middle of the road”). Liberal [![Growing Conservative Unease with Court](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/07/Growing-Conservative-Unease-with-Court1.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/07/24/supreme-courts-favorability-edges-below-50/growing-conservative-unease-with-court-2/) Democrats are far more likely to say the court is conservative (40%) than liberal (19%), with 35% saying it is middle of the road. Nearly half of conservative and moderate Democrats (47%) say the court is middle of the road, as do 45% of moderate and liberal Republicans and 44% of independents. The percentage of conservative Republicans who view the Supreme Court as liberal has increased markedly since the Bush administration. In 2007, just 22% of conservative Republicans said the court was liberal. That percentage rose to 39% in 2010 and stands at 50% today. --- **Next:** [About the Survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2013/07/24/about-the-survey-183.md)