Without public support, there is a real danger that the Supreme Court will lose its legitimacy, and therefore its power. But what are the roots of the public’s support for the country’s highest court? In new research which examines over 40 years of data, Kelsey Shoub, Jamil Scott, and Leah Christiani find that for white Americans, support for the Supreme Court shifts depending on its decisions: when the Court issues conservative rulings on race, especially when they are covered by the media, whites who have more hostile racial attitudes are more likely to support it.

For decades, the United States Supreme Court has held a relatively favorable position in the eyes of the public, at least compared to other federal institutions like Congress and the presidency. But beneath the surface of general approval, our new research reveals a stark and shifting divide: for white Americans, how they feel about the Court depends on their racial attitudes.

Public approval for the Supreme Court means legitimacy

Why does public opinion about the Supreme Court matter? Because the Court lacks the power to enforce its rulings on its own, it relies heavily on its perceived legitimacy to ensure compliance with its decisions. When the public views the Court as fair and impartial, its authority is more likely to be respected. But when confidence erodes — especially among large segments of the population – so too does the Court’s ability to function effectively as an independent arbiter of the law. Understanding the roots of public support, then, is not just a matter of polling – it’s a matter of institutional power and stability.

Of course, public opinion is far from monolithic. Prior research has shown that factors like party identification and ideology shape how people feel about the Court. In new research, we extend this work by asking whether another powerful set of beliefs — racial attitudes — also plays a role. By “racial attitudes,” we refer to how individuals, particularly white Americans, evaluate racial out-groups (i.e. those who are Black and Global Majority), often measured through metrics like racial resentment or differential warmth toward racial groups. These attitudes are known to shape opinions on candidates, policies, and institutions – so we ask: do they shape views of the Supreme Court, too?

Looking at racial resentment and support for the Supreme Court

Using over 40 years of data from the American National Election Study (ANES) and over a decade of data from the Cooperative Election Study (CES), we find that white Americans with more hostile racial attitudes—measured via “racial resentment” and differential feelings toward Black and white people—are now more likely to support the Court. But this wasn’t always the case. In the 1980s, those same attitudes actually predicted less support for the Court.

Evidence of this can be seen in Figure 1, below, which shows predicted values of feelings of warmth towards the Court across three years – 1980, 2000, and 2020 – and across the range of potential values for different measures of white racial attitudes. Estimates come from statistical analysis that controls for a range of standard characteristics that you might suspect relate to feelings about the Court, such as gender, party identification, and political ideology. In the figure, you can see the lines go from sloping downward – indicating that in 1980 as someone was more racially conservative that they felt colder toward the Court – to being flatter in 2000 and then reversing to be a positive trend– indicating that in 2020 as someone is more racially conservative that they felt more warmly toward the Court. In short, the association reversed.

Figure 1 – Predicted values of feelings toward the supreme court by year and racial attitude

Note: Originally printed in Shoub, Scott, and Christiani (2025) as Figure 1. Estimates come from regressions shown in Table 1 in the article. All other values held at their means or modes as appropriate.

More conservative rulings by the Supreme Court means more support from racially-resentful whites

So what changed?

Historically, the Supreme Court was associated with expanding civil rights; consider landmark rulings like Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 ruling which ended racial segregation in public schools. During this period, racially resentful whites viewed the Court with skepticism. But the modern Court, especially following a series of conservative appointments and recent rulings rolling back affirmative action and abortion rights, is now seen as pushing against the expansion of the rights of historically minoritized communities. As the Court’s public image has shifted, so too has the reaction of racially conservative white Americans – toward greater approval.

“Reclaim The Court Rally at the Supreme C” (CC BY 2.0) by Lorie Shaull

Our analysis suggests this is not merely a byproduct of partisanship or ideology. Even after accounting for political leanings, racial attitudes remain a robust predictor of Supreme Court support. Moreover, when we examine high-profile, race-related decisions, such as Shelby County v. Holder, which significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act, we find that the direction of those rulings helps explain the shift. When the Court issues conservative rulings on race, especially when those rulings receive broad media coverage, whites with more hostile racial attitudes feel warmer toward the institution.

This can be seen in Figure 2, below. Here, like the prior figure, we show the predicted values of feelings toward the Court based on analyses which control for a range of additional individual characteristics. In the figures, we again show the range of predicted values for warmth of feelings for three different groups. However, in this analysis, this is done by whether our measure of the difference in salience score between highly salient liberal and conservative decisions is to its minimum (leans more conservative), its median, and its maximum (leans more liberal). The pattern is seen here as above indicating that opinion of the Supreme Court among white Americans is racialized and that this is moderated by what people know of the Court.

Figure 2 – Predicted values of feelings toward the Supreme Court by difference in the number of highly salient cases and racial attitude

Note: Originally printed in Shoub, Scott, and Christiani (2025) as Figure 2. Estimates come from regressions shown in Table 2 in the article. All other values held at their means or modes as appropriate. 

This racialization of Supreme Court opinion among white Americans adds a new layer to our understanding of how Americans engage with democratic institutions. The Court’s legitimacy rests on public confidence, but our findings reveal that confidence has been and is rooted not in perceived neutrality or fairness, but in alignment with deeper group-based attitudes.

As public trust in institutions fractures along partisan and ideological lines, our research shows that race—and how White Americans think about race—also plays a powerful and growing role.

• This article is based on the paper, ‘The Racialization of the United States Supreme Court? Examining Changes in Public Opinion Toward SCOTUS Over Time’ in Political Behavior.
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• Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of USAPP – American Politics and Policy, nor the London School of Economics.