Toplines - Supreme Court - April 8-9, 2010

National Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters
Conducted April 8-9, 2010

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?

5% Excellent
30% Good
40% Fair

22% Poor

3% 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?

60% What’s written in the constitution
31% It should be guided by fairness and justice
9% 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?

45% What’s written in the constitution
28% By fairness and justice
28% Not sure

4* Do most Supreme Court Justices have their own political agenda or do they generally remain impartial?

58% They have their own political agenda
23% They remain impartial
19% Not sure

5* In political terms is the Supreme Court too liberal, too conservative, or about right?

39% Too liberal

25% Too conservative

27% About right

8% Not sure

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

45% Too liberal

6% Too conservative

41% About right

8% Not sure

7* 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?

32% What’s written in the Constitution

44% By fairness and justice

23% Not sure

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