1 month ago
20
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
Very few countries have experienced similar declines, typically in the wake of wrenching turmoil. Experts called the data, from a new Gallup poll, stunning and worrisome.
Dec. 17, 2024, 12:01 a.m. ET
Public confidence in the American legal system has plunged over the past four years, a new Gallup poll found, putting it in the company of nations like Myanmar, Syria and Venezuela.
“These data on the U.S. courts are stunning,” said Tom Ginsburg, an authority on comparative and international law at the University of Chicago.
After the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the several prosecutions of Donald J. Trump, Professor Ginsburg said, “there is a perception that the judiciary has become inexorably politicized.”
Between 2020 and 2024, confidence in the judicial system in the United States dropped 24 percentage points, to 35 percent from 59 percent.
“This was a striking decline in the context of global attitudes,” said Lydia Saad, the director of U.S. social research at Gallup. “These drops are typically associated with pretty significant political upheavals.”
Only nine nations of the more than 160 surveyed in the past two decades have had sharper drops over any four-year period. They include a 46-point decline in Myanmar as it returned to military rule, a 35-point drop in Venezuela as it faced economic and political turmoil and a 28-point decline in Syria in the early phases of its civil war.
