National Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters

Conducted February 22-23, 2009

By Rasmussen Reports

1* Generally speaking, how do you rate the way that the Supreme Court is doing its job—Excellent, Good, Fair, or Poor?

4% Excellent
34% Good
41% Fair
15% Poor

6% Not sure

2* Should the Supreme Court make decisions based on what's written in the Constitution and legal precedents or should it be guided mostly by a sense of fairness and justice?

62% What’s written in the constitution
30% By fairness and justice
8% Not sure

3* How does the Supreme Court work today? Does it make decisions primarily based on what's written in the Constitution and legal precedents or is it guided mostly by a sense of fairness and justice?

47% What’s written in the constitution
27% By fairness and justice
27% Not sure

4* When it comes to how you voted for President in Election 2008, how important an issue was the type of Supreme Court Justices a candidate would appoint?

45% Very important
33% Somewhat important
15% Not very important

3% Not at all important
4% Not sure

5* Will Supreme Court justices nominated by Barack Obama be too liberal, too conservative, or about right?

38% Too liberal
5% Too conservative

46% About right

11% Not sure

6* Does Barack Obama believe Supreme Court justices should decide cases based on what’s written in the Constitution and legal precedents or does he believe they should decide cases by a sense of fairness and justice?

37% What’s written in the constitution
38% By fairness and justice
25% Not sure

NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.