Trust in Judicial System Plunges to Record Low: Gallup

The Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, which hears cases from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Lower Manhattan, New York, on Jan. 18, 2019. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Americans’ confidence in the country’s judicial system has fallen by 24 points over the past four years to a record low, according to Gallup.

A poll released by Gallup on Dec. 17 highlights an erosion of trust in America’s judicial system, with confidence falling from 59 percent in 2020 to an all-time low of 35 percent in 2024.

The 24-point collapse in judicial system confidence is the largest among most major U.S. institutions over the past four years. Gallup also assessed trust in the national government, the military, elections, and financial institutions.

Gallup said that confidence has fallen among supporters and opponents of the administration of President Joe Biden, although likely for different reasons. Both were associated with contentious legal battles surrounding Trump.

Those approving of Biden’s leadership initially maintained steady confidence in the judicial system above 60 percent through his first three years in office. This fell sharply to 44 percent in 2024. Gallup suggests that this decline may reflect dissatisfaction with recent court rulings perceived as favorable to Trump, including decisions from circuit courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.

On the other hand, those disapproving of U.S. leadership under Biden saw their trust in the courts collapse to 29 percent in 2024 from 46 percent in 2021—Biden’s first full year in office.

Gallup suggested that Trump’s legal challenges likely contributed to perceptions of judicial bias or politicization among his supporters. Trump and many of his supporters on Capitol Hill and elsewhere have contended that the legal storm he faced in the run-up to the 2024 election was partisan and baseless “lawfare” designed to derail his presidential comeback bid.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has addressed claims of political bias in the legal cases against Trump, saying that the Department of Justice (DOJ) under his leadership has remained committed to impartiality and has not been used as a political instrument.

“There is not one rule for friends and another for foes, one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless, one rule for the rich and another for the poor, one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans, or different rules depending on one’s race or ethnicity,” Garland said in a Sept. 12 speech in which he said he would not allow the DOJ to be “used as a political weapon.”

In response to Garland’s speech, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung accused Garland of having done “tremendous damage to a once great institution.”

“Using phony charges to interfere with the presidential election on behalf of the Democrat Party has to be stopped and those driving these Hoaxes have to be held accountable.”

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to “completely overhaul” the DOJ.

Meanwhile, the Gallup poll also showed that, while the judiciary saw the sharpest decline in trust, most other major institutions also took a hit.

Trust in the military fell from 93 percent to 83 percent over the past four years, though it remains the most highly respected institution. Confidence in financial institutions dropped from 68 percent to 61 percent between 2020 and 2024, while trust in the national government crashed from 46 percent to 26 percent.

The only improvement in confidence was seen in elections, with Gallup finding that trust in the honesty of elections rose from 45 percent in 2020 to 51 percent in 2024.

The precipitous 24-point drop in Americans’ trust in their judicial system over the past four years puts the United States in a league of third-world countries that saw similar collapses in confidence. These include the Democratic Republic of Congo (-27 percent), Syria (-28 percent), and Uzbekistan (-25 percent).