Gorsuch says Supreme Court is more united than critics claim

Neil Gorsuch argued that the Supreme Court is less fractured than its critics suggest, saying the nine justices are unanimous about 40 percent of the time and that many of the Court’s most visible 5-4 and 6-3 decisions are not clean ideological splits. As the Court heads into its busiest stretch, with roughly three dozen decisions expected by July, Gorsuch said the institution is handling the country’s hardest disputes “pretty darn well.”

The numbers matter because the public mood remains far more skeptical than Gorsuch’s description of the Court. An NBC News poll in March found only 22 percent of registered voters had a great deal or quite a bit of confidence in the Supreme Court. A Gallup poll released in October 2025 found 49 percent of Americans trusted it either a great deal or a fair amount. Against that backdrop, Gorsuch used his rare interview with Jan Crawford to push back on the idea that the Court is simply a bloc of conservatives and liberals locked in permanent opposition.

He pointed to the Court’s voting patterns, saying about half of the cases decided by 5-4 or 6-3 margins are “scrambled every which way” rather than neatly divided along ideological lines. Gorsuch also compared the current Court to 1945, when Franklin Roosevelt had appointed eight of the nine justices, and said “very little changes” in the Court’s basic dynamics. His comments landed as the October Term 2025, which began on October 5, 2025, moves toward a close on October 3, 2026, with opinions continuing into late June and sometimes July.

Gorsuch also drew a sharp line between judicial independence and presidential pressure after fresh criticism from Donald Trump, who has attacked some Republican-appointed justices for not backing him sufficiently. Gorsuch said a justice’s loyalty is to the “Constitution and the laws of the United States,” not to any president. He added that on criminal justice questions he often aligns with Sonia Sotomayor, even as he frequently disagrees with Samuel Alito, a reminder that the Court’s coalitions can cross the lines most visible to the public.

The interview doubled as a promotional moment for Gorsuch’s new children’s book, Heroes of 1776: The Story of the Declaration of Independence, which he coauthored with former law clerk Janie Nitze and which was illustrated by Chris Ellison. Gorsuch said he wrote it to reach both children and parents, and has said separately that he is deeply concerned about declining civics and history education.