Most Americans – A Marquette Law School Poll released in May finds about 6 in 10 adults believe the Supreme Court sides with President Donald Trump “almost always” or “most of the time,” even as the court prepares to issue decisions on birthright citizenship and control over f
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s next wave of rulings is approaching, and most Americans believe the justices will land on President Donald Trump’s side.
In a Marquette Law School Poll taken in May and released as the justices prepare to hand down some of the term’s biggest decisions, about 6 in 10 adults said the court rules for Trump “almost always” or “most of the time.”
The perception sits uneasily beside the court’s recent record on Trump’s economic agenda. In February, the justices rejected the sweeping tariffs that were a centerpiece of Trump’s economic agenda. But the poll reflects a different kind of momentum in the interim: a majority of the justices have often allowed Trump’s controversial policies to move forward while they were being litigated—steps that can be hard to undo once carried out.
Those interim decisions have helped the administration terminate billions of dollars of federal spending. fire thousands of civil servants. remove deportation protections from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants. and ban transgender people from serving in the military. along with other changes.
The tariff decision, by contrast, was the court’s first major ruling against Trump’s expansive view of presidential power. The court’s forthcoming votes may decide how much that view will shape the government’s next moves.
In coming weeks—potentially as early as June 4—the Supreme Court is set to consider whether Trump can change the rules for birthright citizenship, fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, and exert control over other agencies Congress established as independent.
Trump has predicted the justices will reject challenges to his executive order directing federal agencies not to recognize the citizenship of babies born in the United States if neither parent is a citizen or lawful permanent resident. Only about one-third of the adults surveyed said the court should uphold that order. Nearly 7 in 10 said the court should rule it unconstitutional because the 14th Amendment makes those born in the United States citizens.
Majorities also leaned against Trump’s personnel and agency-control ambitions. Significant majorities in the survey said they do not want Trump to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve, and they want checks on the president’s ability to fire leaders of other independent agencies.
Still, the expectation of which direction the court will go appears to be pulling ahead of the public’s preferences. Based on comments made by the justices when the cases were argued. a majority of the 6-3 conservative court is expected to side with Trump on presidential control over some independent agencies. At the same time. a majority seemed unlikely to let Trump fire Cook from the Federal Reserve and unlikely to uphold the birthright citizenship executive order.
The survey also suggests that public opinion is not uniform across the court’s broader docket, especially on decisions that do not directly involve Trump.
One of the sharpest splits came from an April ruling that gutted a key provision of a landmark civil rights act. Told that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 does not require states to create congressional districts where nonwhite voters are in the majority. 49% of adults favored the ruling while 51% opposed it.
In March, the court rejected Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” for young people, ruling that the policy infringed on the free speech rights of a Christian counselor. In that case, 52% of adults surveyed said they favored the decision, while 48% opposed it.
On another LGBTQ+ issue still pending in the court, the public was divided but tilted toward state limits: more than 6 in 10 adults said courts should uphold bans preventing transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams, while 37% disagreed.
Taken together, the figures show a public that is both familiar with the court’s pattern of allowing Trump administration moves to proceed during litigation and, at the same time, uneasy about specific efforts that would tighten presidential power over citizenship rules and independent institutions.
The nationwide survey of 1,001 adults was conducted May 20-26. Its margin of error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
Supreme Court Donald Trump Marquette Law School Poll presidential power birthright citizenship Lisa Cook Federal Reserve independent agencies Voting Rights Act conversion therapy transgender sports