Neil Gorsuch Reveals What Worries Him About America-'Our Own Worst Enemies'

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch said he worries about future generations of Americans during a CBS News interview released Tuesday.

“I worry when I see that maybe 13 percent of eighth graders are proficient in American history, 22 percent is civics, of course I worry. I worry about America fulfilling its own promise. And we are our own worst enemies,” Gorsuch said.

Trust in the Supreme Court remains near historic lows, according to polling. A poll by NBC News released in March found that 22 percent of registered voters nationally said they have a “great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence in the Supreme Court, 40 percent said they had “some” confidence, and 38 percent said they had “very little” or “no” confidence. The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters from February 27 to March 3, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Gorsuch said that distrust of institutions could be traced back to the nation’s beginning.

“Back in 1776, only 40 percent of Americans wanted to declare independence. We’re a disagreeable lot,” Gorsuch said.

He said the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, rules unanimously in about 40 percent of cases. He said the statistic is similar to the frequency with which justices agreed in 1945.

“Nothing has changed around here, nothing. So if we’re doing as well as they did, then I think we’re doing OK,” Gorsuch said.

Gorsuch, who was nominated to the court by President Donald Trump, said he is loyal to the Constitution, and a justice does not owe loyalty to the president who appointed them. Trump also nominated Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, helping to preserve the court's conservative majority, but he has recently voiced criticism of the court.

"Certain ‘Republican' Justices have just gone weak, stupid, and bad, completely violating what they ‘supposedly' stood for," Trump said in a Truth Social post last month.

Gorsuch told CBS News, “You’ve given nine old people life tenure, but you give them life tenure if you believe their job is to only apply the law fairly, without regard to anybody or anything else, or politics or any of the noise.”

He said the court is “immune” from external forces.

“That’s why the Constitution is set up the way it is with respect to judges. And I think it works,” Gorsuch said.

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This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 1:01 PM.