Introduction
The McCourtney Institute for Democracy wanted to better understand how Americans think about the rule of law, especially in relation to presidential Constitutional responsibilities and compliance with courts. In general, we find majority support for upholding the rule of law, but that support is lower in certain scenarios. Partisan differences are present, but large majorities of both parties believe the president who disagrees with laws and court directives should nevertheless follow them.
These results come from a McCourtney Institute Mood of the Nation poll conducted May 19 to 26, 2026, by YouGov. The poll has a margin of error of ± 3.8% for the full sample of 1,000 adults.
What does the Constitution require of American presidents?
The survey first provided respondents with the wording of the Constitution’s “take care clause” and asked them what that should mean in practice:
- “The United States Constitution says that the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” What do you think that phrase should mean for current and all future presidents?’
A very large majority, 70%, said that “All presidents have a duty to enforce all the laws, with no exceptions.” About one in four (23%) said that the clause meant that “All presidents have a duty to enforce all the laws, except those they believe are unconstitutional.” Only 7% overall said that the Constitution provided more flexibility, saying that it meant “All presidents have a duty to only enforce laws that fulfill their campaign promises, but they do not have to enforce laws that they promised to change.” The key takeaway from these results is that more than nine in ten Americans expect their presidents – current and future – to faithfully enforce the laws they inherit when they take the oath of office.
Although there is a meaningful partisan difference, with 78% of Democrats (including Independents who lean Democratic) favoring the “…enforce all the laws, with now exceptions” response, compared to 70% of Republicans, we do not find the kind of partisan polarization that characterizes most political polling. Citizens of both parties share a consensus view on the president’s role.
We probed further by asking about a more nuanced situation where a law’s constitutionality is in question:
- “If a current or future president believes that a law is unconstitutional, what should that president do?”
About three in four Americans (78%) said that presidents should “File a lawsuit asking a federal court to declare the law unconstitutional and enforce the law while waiting for the courts to decide.” In this scenario large majorities of Democrats and Republicans agree that presidents must enforce the law until the courts say otherwise, with only 17% saying that presidents can ignore a potentially unconstitutional law while waiting for the judicial process to play out, or waiting for others to initiate a judicial challenge (7%).
The group that is most inclined to give presidents a degree of flexibility are political Independents but a majority of these unaffiliated voters nevertheless say that presidents must enforce the laws without exception (58%), and if they feel a law is unconstitutional (68%)
Rule of law versus situational flexibility
The survey then presented a series of six statements that have been used as a standard measure of Americans’ support for the rule of law generally and featured in a recent book by Amenda Driscoll, Jay Krehbiel and Michael Nelson. These agree/disagree questions were presented in random order.
- The president must always obey the laws and the courts even if he thinks they are wrong.*
- If you don’t particularly agree with a law, it is all right to break it if you are careful not to get caught.
- When the Supreme Court hinders the work of our government, our president should ignore it.
- When the country is facing a difficult situation, it is ok for the government to disregard the law in order to deal with the situation.
- The courts have the right to make decisions that people always have to abide by.*
- Sometimes it might be better to ignore the law and solve problems immediately rather than wait for a legal solution.
Since the sentiment of two questions differ from the rest (denoted with an asterisk), we have recoded these to reflect a continuum running from “favors upholding rule of law” to “Supports legal flexibility” to ease comparisons between the entire set.
These questions did not explicitly refer to the Constitution, and a couple of them refer specifically to “our president” and “the president” as opposed to the reference to “all presidents” in the earlier questions.
Overall, responses to five of the six show a majority of Americans favor a rule of law response, with a plurality expressing support for the rule of law in response to the sixth question.
The statement garnering the highest overall support was “The president must always obey the laws and the courts even if he thinks they are wrong.” Just over three-quarters agreed with that statement, thus taking the position of upholding the rule of law. The results are very similar to the first question, suggesting that this sentiment is strongly held and not substantially impacted by question wording or question format (i.e., agree/disagree compared to selecting the statement that best reflects one’s views).
The only statement which had less than one-half of Americans taking a rule of law stance was “Sometimes it might be better to ignore the law and solve problems immediately rather than wait for a legal solution.” Still, a significant plurality of 47% disagreed with this statement, thus favoring the rule of law position.
In contrast to the two general questions on the president’s duties, several of these questions showed high levels of partisan polarization. The largest partisan gap emerged in a question involving the need to deal with a pressing situation. Only 47% of Republicans disagreed that “it is ok for the government to disregard the law in order to deal with the situation” in contrast to 75% of Democrats.
Partisan consensus emerged only with respect to citizens’ obligations, with 80% of Republicans and 77% of Democrats rejecting the idea that “If you don’t particularly agree with a law, it is all right to break it if you are careful not to get caught.”
Demographic analysis
A demographic analysis of the two questions explicitly mentioning the Constitution reveals that strong majorities of a variety of groups think that the President should uphold laws – even laws the president vowed to overturn or is actively contesting in the courts. There is some variation in level of support between certain groups, however. In response to both questions, support for presidential enforcement of laws is higher among:
- Older Americans,
- White Americans, compared with Black and Hispanic Americans,
- Those with a college degree or more education, and
- Those in the highest income bracket (annual family income of $100,000 or more).
Similarly, our analysis of agreement with the other six statements, majorities of most groups and pluralities of nearly all the others, supported the rule of law position. And once again, agreement with the law-abiding positions was highest among older adults, those with college degrees, and those with higher incomes.
Unlike the Constitutional questions, relative agreement levels by racial group varied from statement to statement. Also, a slightly higher proportion of men than women supported the rule of law position in response to the five of the six statements, whereas men and women responded in near identical patterns to the two constitutional questions.
About the survey
Survey transparency disclosures
Data collection for this Mood of the Nation Poll was conducted online by YouGov. The YouGov panel includes over 1.8 million individuals who agree to complete occasional surveys.
Most Mood of the Nation Polls, are cross-sectional polls of approximately 1,000 U.S. adults, matched to a sampling frame on gender, age, race, and education. The frame was constructed by stratified sampling from the full 2023 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year sample with selection within strata by weighted sampling with replacements (using the person weights on the public use file).
The data are then post-stratified on 2024 presidential vote choice as well as a four-way stratification of gender, age (4-categories), race (4-categories), and education (4-categories), to produce the final weight.
About the McCourtney Institute for Democracy
The McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State promotes scholarship and practical innovations that defend and advance democracy in the United States and abroad. Through teaching, research and public outreach, the Institute leverages the resources of Penn State and partners around the world to foster a model of deliberation, policymaking and responsiveness that is passionate, informed and civil.
The Mood of the Nation Poll offers a unique approach to public opinion polling. It allows Americans to speak in their own words through open-ended questions that focus on emotions like anger and hope, as well as commitment to constitutional principles.
Acknowledgments
This report was authored by Eric Plutzer, Ph.D., of Penn State’s McCourtney Institute for Democracy, who also designed the survey questions in his role as Director of the Mood of the Nation Poll, and Craig Helmstetter, Ph.D.