Public trust at historic low, Trump tariffs case also a test for US Supreme Court

The American public’s trust in the  US Supreme Court is near a historic low, as half of Americans currently hold an unfavourable opinion, while roughly as many view the court favourably. The findings were shared by the Pew Research Centre on November 3.

While opinions about the court have been relatively stable over the last few decades, favourable opinions about the apex body have been close to a three-decade low. The data shared by Per Research Centre was based on the survey of US adults conducted August 4-10, 2025.

According to the Pew Research Centre, the court’s favourable rating is 22 percentage points lower than it was back in August 2020. During former US President Joe Biden’s time in the office, 70 per cent of Americans had a positive view of the court.

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As per the data, just 26 per cent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents view the Supreme Court favourably. Interestingly, before the court’s 2022 decision to overturn the federal right to abortion, as well as other controversial rulings, nearly two-thirds of Democrats had a favourable impression of the court.

Meanwhile, the survey noted that Republicans and those who leaned towards the GOP were much more likely to view the high court favorably, with 71 per cent holding a positive opinion. As per the polls, Republicans’ opinions of the court have changed much less than Democrats’ views in recent years.

Most people think the Supreme Court leans towards Conservatives.

According to the Pew Research Centre findings, nearly half of Americans (47 per cent) view the Supreme Court as conservative, while 44 per cent see it as “middle of the road.” Meanwhile, only 7 per cent of the responders think the court is liberal.

The findings maintained that public opinion about the court’s ideology remained the same for the past few years. Compared with 2020, however, Americans are much more likely to describe the court as conservative. Among the respondents, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to view the Supreme Court as conservative.

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Apart from this, more than half of Americans (57 per cent) say the Supreme Court has the right amount of power, while 32 per cent say it has too much power. As per the data shared by the centre, only 9 per cent say that they could have too little power.

Americans are less likely today than last year to say the court has too much power. “This change is entirely driven by Democrats: 43 per cent say the court has too much power – down from 62 per cent last year. However, the share of Democrats who say the court has too much power remains much higher than it was five years ago,” the research said.

When it comes to Supreme Court justices keeping their political views out of their decision-making, the survey findings showed that only 14 per cent of Americans say the justices are doing an excellent or good job of this, while 56 per cent argue that they are doing only a fair or poor job.

The Pew Research Centre concluded that overall, 86 per cent of Americans say the justices should not bring their political views into decision-making, while just 12 per cent say they should.

Major test for Supreme Court: Trump tariffs

The biggest test in front of the Supreme Court right now is the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, the justices at the top court raised doubts on Wednesday over the legality of the Trump tariffs.

Conservative and liberal justices alike sharply questioned the lawyer representing Trump’s administration about whether a 1977 law meant for use during national emergencies gave Trump the power he claimed to impose tariffs or whether the Republican president had intruded on the powers of Congress.

However, some of the conservative justices also stressed the inherent authority of presidents in dealing with foreign countries, suggesting the court could be sharply divided in the outcome of the case. It is pertient to note that the court has a 6-3 conservative majority.

The arguments, lasting more than 2-1/2 hours, came in appeals by the administration after lower courts ruled that Trump’s unprecedented use of the law at issue to impose the tariffs exceeded his authority.

Trump has heaped pressure on the Supreme Court to preserve tariffs that he has leveraged as a key economic and foreign policy tool. Hence, a ruling against Trump would mark a significant departure for the court, which has backed him in a series of decisions allowing, on an interim basis, his far-reaching actions in areas such as the crackdown on immigration and mass firings.

With inputs from Reuters.