Does The Nation Want A More Conservative SCOTUS?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Polls, Supreme CourtI’ve just recently seen a Gallup Poll conducted in the middle of June asking over at Redstate.org. It asks what kind of SCOTUS they’d like to see: more conservative, more liberal or keep it the same.
The results showed that 41% wanted it more conservative, 30% wanted it more liberal and 24% wanted it to stay the same. And the other 5%, well…they like macaroni. Don’t ask.
Now, this could be read a couple different ways. The elephants will say that 65% of the country either wants a more conservative court or no change. The donkeys will say that 54% of the country either wants a more liberal court or no change. But I’d like to point out that neither side has a majority, but the needle does seem to be favoring a more conservative court, by 11% no less. Sure, that could be an anamoly so let’s wait for subsequent polls to even out the results before we draw any concrete conclusions.
However, in the same poll, people were asked about whether they wanted a justice that would overturn Roe v. Wade. They overwhelmingly said they wanted the new justice to uphold it by 65% to 29%.
Let’s hope Bush keeps that last set of numbers in mind when choosing a nominee.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 6th, 2005 and is filed under Polls, Supreme Court. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 6th, 2005 at 2:35 pm
It could also be said that the 41% that want a more conservative court would prefer it to remain the same rather than become more liberal, and that the 30% that want a more liberal court would prefer it to remain the same rather than become more conservative. So If we are going to look at this in the terms the poll uses, the safest thing to do is keep it the same.
But, terms like “more conservative” or “more liberal” really don’t have a place in the Supreme Court discussion. Such distinctions are for those who would use the Court as a political tool. To be true to our forefathers — remember the holiday Monday? — we should be using terms like “fair,” “non-partisan” and “objective.”
What would be the result of a poll that asked:
Do you favor a perfectly objective Supreme Court? Yes or No
I mean besides the 5% that will answer “I don’t know.”
July 6th, 2005 at 6:43 pm
I agree. I’d like to see that question asked. I bet the response would be overwhelming.
July 19th, 2005 at 3:59 pm
Rhetoric aside from the right or the left it is very difficult to define a conservative or liberal court. Every issue they face is approached in a unique manner. Perfect Objectivity is not easily attained. There are some areas where I feel the court should have been more conservative and some where they should be more liberal. To be honest a majority of the justices on the court could be labeled as conservatives yet they make differing decisions on cases that are treated as liberal (Eminent Domain). I truly believe that the SCOTUS tries to be objective but no matter whom is appointed they will approach each issue with their point of view which could be liberal or conservative depending on the issue. Just my .02.
July 19th, 2005 at 4:36 pm
Hmmm… objective with respect to what? Previous court rulings? “Conventional wisdom”? Media bias? The judges’ individual ideologies? I’d be afraid that’s a rather open-ended question. Almost as vague as asking whether or not the court should be more “mainstream”.
Maybe I’ll never understand, but I’d love to read anything by anyone who can take a serious shot at explaining this “living document” notion – keeping in mind that the Constitution is, in fact, already engineered as a modifiable vehicle via the Amendment Process.
IMHO, a too-liberal or too-conservative court has the potential to treat the Constitution (in some cases – specifically like Roe & Kelos) as though it had no Amendment Process at all. It seems to me that the right mix is a panel of ‘originalists’ – a term which I believe has become erroneously synonymous with conservative thought and just as erroneously associated with outdated cultural thinking like ‘whites only’ restrooms, homosexuality listed in the DSM as an emotional disorder, etc.
August 4th, 2005 at 8:27 am
[...] Donklephant has been tracking opinion on the Supreme Court. Another interesting opinion poll asked Americans about the importance of issues the Supreme Court makes decisions on. 63% ranked Abortion as “very important” and an almost equal number (62%) gave the same ranking to “detained terrorists’ rights.” “This important question of the trade-off of civil liberties and protection is one the public takes very seriously,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. “The public has been reminded recently of the ongoing threat of terrorism and what we should or should not have to sacrifice for our safety.” [...]