Tuesday, July 03, 2018

AMERICANS WANT A SWIFT COURT CONFIRMATION -- JUST THE WAY THEY DID WHEN MERRICK GARLAND WAS NOMINATED

Conservatives are high-fiving one another in response to this poll:
A majority of Americans believe the Republican-led Senate should vote on President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the November midterm elections, undercutting the Democratic argument that it should be delayed until after the pivotal fall elections, according to a new NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll.

More than six in 10 Americans, or 62 percent, said Trump's nominee, who will be announced on Monday, should be confirmed or rejected before the elections in which control of the House and Senate are at stake. About three in 10, or 33 percent, said the Senate should wait until after the elections, the poll found.

Sixty-six percent of Democrats and 60 percent of Republicans said Trump's nominee would be an important factor in their vote in the midterms. However, less than half of independents, 46 percent, said it would be on their mind when casting their November ballot.
In that case, the Senate should be responsive to the will of the people, just the way it always is. Oh, wait -- you mean it isn't always responsive to the will of the people in similar circumstances? For instance, the similar circumstances two years ago?

There was a poll then, too:
Following President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the open seat on the Supreme Court, a new CNN/ORC poll finds two-thirds of Americans want the Senate to hold confirmation hearings on his candidacy, and a majority of Americans say the Senate should ultimately vote to confirm him.

According to the survey, 52% say Garland ought to be confirmed, 33% that the Senate should not vote in favor of his nomination. Another 15% are unsure.

... most Republicans disagree with the position taken by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who says the Senate will not hold hearings on Garland's confirmation. Among Republicans, 55% say the Senate should hold hearings on Obama's choice, as do 67% of Democrats and 68% of independents. The 64% overall who say there should be hearings is about the same as the 66% who said so in February before Obama named his choice to fill the vacancy.

Most Americans, 57%, say the choice for the next justice should rest with Obama and not with the next president, and a similar majority, 58%, say that senators who believe the seat should be filled by the next president would not be justified in voting against Garland for that reason.
The new poll doesn't ask whether respondents approve of the double standard. I would have appreciated a question on that.

Oh, and the new poll also tells us this:
The majority of independents, 63 percent, and Democrats, 53 percent, said the next justice should be moderate, while 65 percent of Republicans want a conservative on the bench. However, 61 percent of Americans said, regardless of party affiliation, that they wanted a justice who would uphold Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark court case that legalized abortion. Only three in 10 said they wanted a justice who would cast a vote to overturn the decision.
Overall, 44% want a moderate, 20% want a liberal, and only 32% want what we're going to get, a conservative. It's Republican disrespect for the will of the people -- as usual.

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