Americans lost trust in judicial system over the past four years, Gallup survey finds

Americans are losing confidence in the judiciary, according to a new Gallup survey that revealed the public’s trust in the courts is down to 35%, a decline coinciding with the legal system’s treatment of President-elect Donald Trump.

That’s a 24-point drop since 2000, and follows the roughly half-dozen criminal prosecutions against Mr. Trump. 

It also comes after the Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion in 2022.

The results are unclear if respondents were thinking of just the high court’s rulings or also mulling the litigation against Mr. Trump. However, according to Gallup, just a few other countries found such a decline. 

Those include Myanmar, which saw a 46-point drop after the 2021 return to military rule, Venezuela with a 35-point drop in the course of economic and political chaos spanning the past decade, and Syria, which experienced a 28-point drop during its civil war.

The Gallup poll, published Tuesday, did not differentiate on party affiliation. But it reasoned that some of the decline was attributed to the cases against Mr. Trump. 

Gallup suggested some respondents were frustrated with the criminal and civil cases against the president-elect, while others may have been dissatisfied with the Supreme Court ruling in his favor on presidential immunity.

President Biden’s Justice Department appointed special counsel Jack Smith, who indicted Mr. Trump over his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago in the summer of 2023. Roughly two months later, Mr. Smith also indicted Mr. Trump over his contest of the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021.

Earlier in 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg also indicted Mr. Trump for allegedly falsifying business records. A New York jury convicted Mr. Trump of 34 felony counts in May, but sentencing has been on hold following Mr. Trump’s election victory.

A criminal case is also pending against him in Fulton County, Georgia, over his contest of the 2020 results. 

The Gallup survey found that out of all U.S. institutions, the court system had lost the most confidence during the past four years. 

Democrats’ confidence in the Supreme Court dropped 25 points in 2022, from 50% to 25%, when the high court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that gave women a national right to abortion. The high court’s decision sent the issue of abortion back to states to regulate.

Democrats had just 24% confidence in the Supreme Court in 2024, the year the justices gave Mr. Trump a win on presidential immunity from prosecution for some official acts. In the decision, the justices said a president is immune from prosecution for core functions and presumed immune for other official conduct. But a president is not immune to unofficial actions, the justices reasoned.

Meanwhile, 71% of Republicans trust the high court.

The Gallup poll was conducted by telephone, sampling 1,000 adults between June 28 and Aug. 1 who were 15 years old and older.  The survey has a 4.4% margin of error. 

— This article is based in part on wire service reports.