From the spin in this article, I assume that poll takers don't ask whether people approve or not of the role the court plays but only if the decisions resonate politically.
Full Court Press
Polls: Americans Say Court Is 'About Right'
By Charles Lane
Monday, July 7, 2003; Page A15
It was more than a century ago that a fictional Irish American rendered what is, for some, still the definitive verdict on the Supreme Court's actual degree of insulation from politics.
"[N]o matther whether th' constitution follows th' flag or not," Mr. Dooley, journalist Peter Finley Dunne's Everyman, said in 1901, "th' supreme coort follows th' iliction returns."
Whether Mr. Dooley was right or not, recent polling data about the Supreme Court and the issues it decides suggest that, though the court may now be regarded as a somewhat more liberal institution than it was before its blockbuster rulings on race and homosexuality, it remains a fairly reliable weathervane of overall public sentiment.
Fifty-one percent of 900 registered voters queried by Fox News/Opinion Dynamics at the end of the term agree that the court is "in touch with what is going on in the country." Only 38 percent say the court is "not in touch."
In its two most highly publicized rulings of the term, the court let universities consider race in admissions and struck down the country's remaining state laws criminalizing gay sex.
Thirty percent of those questioned in the poll see the court as "too liberal," while a plurality, 37 percent, say the court is "about right" in its decisions. Twenty percent say it is "too conservative."
That represents a shift to the left in the public's perception of the court from a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in late February and early March. In that poll, 19 percent saw the court as too liberal, 46 percent said it was about right, and 26 percent saw it as too right-leaning.
But the current "about right" rating is in line with other recent polls showing that, even after its 5 to 4 decision in Bush v. Gore (with which 52 percent of Americans now agree, says the Quinnipiac poll), the high court retains a strong overall approval rating, usually in the 55 to 60 percent range.
Also, some of the shift in perception of the court could be accounted for by the fact that the Quinnipiac poll's larger sample of 1,448 adults was not limited to registered voters, as the Fox poll was.
Fox reported that a 44 percent to 40 percent plurality (just one point outside the poll's three-point margin of error) disapproved of striking down Texas's homosexual sodomy statute. But Justice Anthony M. Kennedy seems to have been right when he noted, in his majority opinion in the Texas case, that Americans are growing more tolerant of homosexuality and accepting of gays.
The Quinnipiac poll, taken before the ruling, showed a 57 percent to 38 percent majority against the court's 1986 decision upholding a state's ban on gay sex; Kennedy's opinion overruled that decision.
In a 2000 Associated Press poll, solid majorities favored permitting gay partners to have legal rights to inheritance, health insurance coverage and Social Security benefits. In a 2000 Fox poll, 57 percent said that gay men and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military.
And a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll taken right after the court's ruling showed the lowest majority against gay marriage, 55 percent to 39 percent, since that poll began asking the question in 1996.
So even if the court was in front of the public on homosexuality, it was within the mainstream.
A strong 63 percent to 24 percent majority in the Fox poll objected to the court's affirmative action ruling.
But on affirmative action, poll results are notoriously dependent on how the question is phrased. When Americans are asked, as they were in the Fox poll, whether they favor "allowing an applicant's race to be a factor in college admission procedures," the response is usually strongly negative. However, on the question, "Do you favor or oppose affirmative action programs for racial minorities?" a 49 percent to 43 percent plurality favors such programs, according to a June Gallup poll.
Perhaps most significantly for the court, 80 percent of Americans told an AP poll earlier this year that it is very important or somewhat important "for a college to have a racially diverse student body." The court's opinion hinged on the view that race-conscious admissions are the only way to preserve a measure of campus integration.
Of the nine justices, middle-of-the-roader Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- the author of the court's affirmative action decision -- tops the Fox poll's list of who Americans "most admire or agree with."
In the poll, 11 percent name her, almost twice as many as the second-place finisher, conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia.
Sixty-eight percent of those who responded could not name any of the justices.
© 2003 The Washington Post CompanyFull Court Press
Polls: Americans Say Court Is 'About Right'
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By Charles Lane
Monday, July 7, 2003; Page A15
It was more than a century ago that a fictional Irish American rendered what is, for some, still the definitive verdict on the Supreme Court's actual degree of insulation from politics.
"[N]o matther whether th' constitution follows th' flag or not," Mr. Dooley, journalist Peter Finley Dunne's Everyman, said in 1901, "th' supreme coort follows th' iliction returns."
Whether Mr. Dooley was right or not, recent polling data about the Supreme Court and the issues it decides suggest that, though the court may now be regarded as a somewhat more liberal institution than it was before its blockbuster rulings on race and homosexuality, it remains a fairly reliable weathervane of overall public sentiment.
Fifty-one percent of 900 registered voters queried by Fox News/Opinion Dynamics at the end of the term agree that the court is "in touch with what is going on in the country." Only 38 percent say the court is "not in touch."
In its two most highly publicized rulings of the term, the court let universities consider race in admissions and struck down the country's remaining state laws criminalizing gay sex.
Thirty percent of those questioned in the poll see the court as "too liberal," while a plurality, 37 percent, say the court is "about right" in its decisions. Twenty percent say it is "too conservative."
That represents a shift to the left in the public's perception of the court from a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in late February and early March. In that poll, 19 percent saw the court as too liberal, 46 percent said it was about right, and 26 percent saw it as too right-leaning.
But the current "about right" rating is in line with other recent polls showing that, even after its 5 to 4 decision in Bush v. Gore (with which 52 percent of Americans now agree, says the Quinnipiac poll), the high court retains a strong overall approval rating, usually in the 55 to 60 percent range.
Also, some of the shift in perception of the court could be accounted for by the fact that the Quinnipiac poll's larger sample of 1,448 adults was not limited to registered voters, as the Fox poll was.
Fox reported that a 44 percent to 40 percent plurality (just one point outside the poll's three-point margin of error) disapproved of striking down Texas's homosexual sodomy statute. But Justice Anthony M. Kennedy seems to have been right when he noted, in his majority opinion in the Texas case, that Americans are growing more tolerant of homosexuality and accepting of gays.
The Quinnipiac poll, taken before the ruling, showed a 57 percent to 38 percent majority against the court's 1986 decision upholding a state's ban on gay sex; Kennedy's opinion overruled that decision.
In a 2000 Associated Press poll, solid majorities favored permitting gay partners to have legal rights to inheritance, health insurance coverage and Social Security benefits. In a 2000 Fox poll, 57 percent said that gay men and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military.
And a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll taken right after the court's ruling showed the lowest majority against gay marriage, 55 percent to 39 percent, since that poll began asking the question in 1996.
So even if the court was in front of the public on homosexuality, it was within the mainstream.
A strong 63 percent to 24 percent majority in the Fox poll objected to the court's affirmative action ruling.
But on affirmative action, poll results are notoriously dependent on how the question is phrased. When Americans are asked, as they were in the Fox poll, whether they favor "allowing an applicant's race to be a factor in college admission procedures," the response is usually strongly negative. However, on the question, "Do you favor or oppose affirmative action programs for racial minorities?" a 49 percent to 43 percent plurality favors such programs, according to a June Gallup poll.
Perhaps most significantly for the court, 80 percent of Americans told an AP poll earlier this year that it is very important or somewhat important "for a college to have a racially diverse student body." The court's opinion hinged on the view that race-conscious admissions are the only way to preserve a measure of campus integration.
Of the nine justices, middle-of-the-roader Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- the author of the court's affirmative action decision -- tops the Fox poll's list of who Americans "most admire or agree with."
In the poll, 11 percent name her, almost twice as many as the second-place finisher, conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia.
Sixty-eight percent of those who responded could not name any of the justices.
© 2003 The Washington Post CompanyFull Court Press
Polls: Americans Say Court Is 'About Right'
_____Column Archive_____
• Full Court Press
Add Full Court Press to your personal home page.
Subscribe to
E-Mail This Article
Printer-Friendly Version
Permission to Republish
By Charles Lane
Monday, July 7, 2003; Page A15
It was more than a century ago that a fictional Irish American rendered what is, for some, still the definitive verdict on the Supreme Court's actual degree of insulation from politics.
"[N]o matther whether th' constitution follows th' flag or not," Mr. Dooley, journalist Peter Finley Dunne's Everyman, said in 1901, "th' supreme coort follows th' iliction returns."
Whether Mr. Dooley was right or not, recent polling data about the Supreme Court and the issues it decides suggest that, though the court may now be regarded as a somewhat more liberal institution than it was before its blockbuster rulings on race and homosexuality, it remains a fairly reliable weathervane of overall public sentiment.
Fifty-one percent of 900 registered voters queried by Fox News/Opinion Dynamics at the end of the term agree that the court is "in touch with what is going on in the country." Only 38 percent say the court is "not in touch."
In its two most highly publicized rulings of the term, the court let universities consider race in admissions and struck down the country's remaining state laws criminalizing gay sex.
Thirty percent of those questioned in the poll see the court as "too liberal," while a plurality, 37 percent, say the court is "about right" in its decisions. Twenty percent say it is "too conservative."
That represents a shift to the left in the public's perception of the court from a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in late February and early March. In that poll, 19 percent saw the court as too liberal, 46 percent said it was about right, and 26 percent saw it as too right-leaning.
But the current "about right" rating is in line with other recent polls showing that, even after its 5 to 4 decision in Bush v. Gore (with which 52 percent of Americans now agree, says the Quinnipiac poll), the high court retains a strong overall approval rating, usually in the 55 to 60 percent range.
Also, some of the shift in perception of the court could be accounted for by the fact that the Quinnipiac poll's larger sample of 1,448 adults was not limited to registered voters, as the Fox poll was.
Fox reported that a 44 percent to 40 percent plurality (just one point outside the poll's three-point margin of error) disapproved of striking down Texas's homosexual sodomy statute. But Justice Anthony M. Kennedy seems to have been right when he noted, in his majority opinion in the Texas case, that Americans are growing more tolerant of homosexuality and accepting of gays.
The Quinnipiac poll, taken before the ruling, showed a 57 percent to 38 percent majority against the court's 1986 decision upholding a state's ban on gay sex; Kennedy's opinion overruled that decision.
In a 2000 Associated Press poll, solid majorities favored permitting gay partners to have legal rights to inheritance, health insurance coverage and Social Security benefits. In a 2000 Fox poll, 57 percent said that gay men and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military.
And a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll taken right after the court's ruling showed the lowest majority against gay marriage, 55 percent to 39 percent, since that poll began asking the question in 1996.
So even if the court was in front of the public on homosexuality, it was within the mainstream.
A strong 63 percent to 24 percent majority in the Fox poll objected to the court's affirmative action ruling.
But on affirmative action, poll results are notoriously dependent on how the question is phrased. When Americans are asked, as they were in the Fox poll, whether they favor "allowing an applicant's race to be a factor in college admission procedures," the response is usually strongly negative. However, on the question, "Do you favor or oppose affirmative action programs for racial minorities?" a 49 percent to 43 percent plurality favors such programs, according to a June Gallup poll.
Perhaps most significantly for the court, 80 percent of Americans told an AP poll earlier this year that it is very important or somewhat important "for a college to have a racially diverse student body." The court's opinion hinged on the view that race-conscious admissions are the only way to preserve a measure of campus integration.
Of the nine justices, middle-of-the-roader Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- the author of the court's affirmative action decision -- tops the Fox poll's list of who Americans "most admire or agree with."
In the poll, 11 percent name her, almost twice as many as the second-place finisher, conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia.
Sixty-eight percent of those who responded could not name any of the justices.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company |
