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Survey of 1,000 Adults September 10-11, 2005
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September 12, 2005--On the day that confirmation hearings begin for Judge John Roberts, 72% of Americans expect him to be to be confirmed and serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. While he's now nominated for an even more prominent role, those numbers are little different from a month ago. At that time, 73% said it was likely that Roberts would be confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Thirty-six percent (36%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of Roberts while 26% have an unfavorable opinion. As always, there is a partisan divide. Republicans, by a 61% to 12% margin, have a favorable opinion of the nominee. Democrats, by a 41% to 18% margin, have an unfavorable opinion. [More Below] Thirty-nine percent (39%) of Americans believe Roberts should be confirmed, little changed from the 40% who held that view in August. Twenty-six percent (26%) say he should not be confirmed, up from 21% in the prior survey. Republicans, by a 64% to 11% margin, believe Roberts should be approved. Democrats disagree, by a 39% to 22% margin. Unaffiliateds are evenly divided. The confirmation debate has attracted a modest level of public interest. Just 56% say that they are following news stories on the Roberts confirmation somewhat or very closely. That's roughly the same level of interest as the Cindy Sheehan story. An earlier survey found that just 17% of Americans Consider Supreme Court Justice O'Connor as politically conservative. Roberts was initially nominated to replace O'Connor. Other related surveys include: 46% Say Supreme Court Too Hostile Towards Religion 42% Have Favorable Opinion of Supreme Court 58% Say Dem Senators Should Confirm Qualified Conservative 22% Like Filibuster Compromise Demographic cross-tabs are available for Premium Members. Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. Rasmussen Reports was the nation's most accurate polling firm during the Presidential election and the only one to project both Bush and Kerry's vote total within half a percentage point of the actual outcome. During Election 2004, RasmussenReports.com was also the top-ranked public opinion research site on the web. We had twice as many visitors as our nearest competitor and nearly as many as all competitors combined. Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.
The telephone survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted by Rasmussen Reports September 10-11, 2005. Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Respondents were Republicans and 37% were Democrats. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence (see Methodology) |
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