Eighty-three percent (83%) of U.S. voters say America’s legal system should apply the law equally to all Americans rather than using the law to help those who have less power and influence. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 8% disagree.

This belief is shared overwhelmingly by Republicans, Democrats and voters not affiliated with either party.

However, voters are more divided when asked how the legal system is actually performing today. Thirty-seven percent (37%) say the U.S. legal system generally provides unfair advantages to minorities, while 34% say it generally treats all Americans equally.

Eighteen percent (18%) of voters say the American legal system generally discriminates against minorities.

Here a partisan gap emerges. While nearly half of Republicans and unaffiliated voters think the legal system provides unfair advantage to minorities, just 24% of Democrats agree.

One-third of Democrats say the system discriminates against minorities, a view that has single-digit support among GOP voters and unaffiliateds.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of African-Americans say the legal system generally discriminates against minorities, a view shared by only 14% of whites.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter.

Voters overwhelmingly believe that well-qualified male and female judges – after carefully examining all the facts, studying the appropriate law and honestly trying to apply the law as it was written - would reach the same conclusion most of the time. They say the same of well-qualified white and Hispanic judges.

Preisdent Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, said in a 2001 speech, “Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences … our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.” She added, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.”

Sotomayor’s critics have seized on these comments to suggest that as a Supreme Court justice she might not rule on the basis of the law alone. The president has since said that Sotomayor “misspoke.”

Forty-eight percent (48%) of voters say that most Supreme Court justices, when considering important cases, carefully examine all the facts, study the appropriate law and honestly try to apply the law as it is written. Twenty-seven percent (27%) disagree, and 25% are not sure.

Americans initially responded more favorably to Sotomayor’s nomination than any of President George W. Bush’s candidates for the Supreme Court, but that support has lessened slightly a week after Obama announced his choice.

Voters are closely divided over whether Obama’s nominees for the Supreme Court will be too liberal or just about right.

A plurality of voters say the president thinks Supreme Court justices should decide cases based on a sense of fairness and justice rather than what’s written in the U.S. Constitution. But voters by more than a two-to-one margin say the justices should base their rulings on what is written in the Constitution.

The Supreme Court is the branch of the federal government that has the highest level of public trust.

Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it’s free) or follow us on Twitter. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.

See survey questions and toplines. Crosstabs are available to Premium Members only.