A FREE HAND:

Thinking about the Supreme Court: The Next Nominee (Karlyn H. Bowman, November 17, 2004, Roll Call)

President Bush could soon make one of the momentous decisions of his presidency: the selection of a Supreme Court justice. What does the United States think?

In a Nov. 3-5 AP/Ipsos Public Affairs poll, a plurality of 37 percent of registered voters said they were very comfortable that Bush would nominate the "right kind of justice to the Supreme Court." Another 22 percent were somewhat comfortable, 12 percent were not too comfortable, and 29 percent were not at all comfortable. [...]

An ABC News poll from June 2003 found that 56 percent of respondents thought the next person appointed to the court should be someone who favors giving state governments more authority than the federal government. By contrast, only 31 percent wanted that person to give the federal government more authority than the states. [...]

ABC found that 60 percent of respondents said the nominee should try to follow the original intentions of the authors of the Constitution, while 34 percent said he should follow an interpretation of what the Constitution means in current times. [...]

Since 1991, Gallup has been asking people whether the court is too liberal, too conservative or just about right. In 1991, 20 percent said it was too liberal, 39 percent just about right and 25 percent too conservative. In 2003, those responses were 31 percent too liberal, 39 percent just about right and 25 percent too conservative.

It can't help thatr the issues that scare Democrats the most and about which they're most vocal and hysterical are the ones where they're the <40% end of the wedge.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 19, 2004 8:52 AM