Americans Support Roberts' Confirmation

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- The United States Senate Judiciary Committee continues confirmation hearings today regarding the nomination of U.S. Circuit Judge John Roberts Jr. to serve as the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll finds that nearly 6 in 10 Americans say they would like the Senate to confirm Roberts to the high court. Support for Roberts' confirmation is higher now than it was in August, and is at the same level Gallup recorded when President George W. Bush first nominated Roberts in late July. Half of Americans say they have a favorable view of Roberts, while only about one in six view him unfavorably and one-third have no opinion. Blacks and Democrats are much less likely than whites and Republicans to support Roberts' confirmation and to view him favorably.

Support for Roberts' Confirmation

The poll, conducted Sept. 8-11, finds that 58% of Americans support the Senate confirming Roberts to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Twenty-seven percent oppose his confirmation and 15% have no opinion.

Gallup has asked this question four times since President Bush nominated Roberts in late July, initially to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. At that time, 59% of Americans said the Senate should confirm Roberts. Then, in August, support for Roberts' confirmation decreased slightly, but still a slim majority of Americans (51% in early August and 52% in late August) supported his confirmation. Gallup polling conducted after Bush nominated Roberts to serve as chief justice upon the recent death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist -- but before the Senate confirmation hearings began this week -- finds support for his confirmation at 58%.

Republicans continue to show substantially higher levels of support for Roberts' confirmation than Democrats. Nearly 8 in 10 Republicans (79%) say the Senate should confirm Roberts to the Supreme Court, while 7% say the Senate should not confirm him and 14% have no opinion. These results compare with just 41% of Democrats who support the confirmation, 46% who oppose it, and 13% who have no opinion. Republican support has remained essentially unchanged since late July, while support among Democrats dipped in August but is now back to the level Gallup first measured.

Opinion of Roberts

The poll also asked Americans for their overall opinion of the Supreme Court nominee. Fifty percent of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of Roberts, while 17% have an unfavorable opinion and 33% do not have an opinion about him. The percentage of Americans with no opinion of Roberts has decreased since late July, while the favorable and unfavorable percentages have increased proportionately.

Americans' opinions of Roberts also show sharp partisan differences. Two in three Republicans (67%) have a favorable opinion of Roberts, while 4% have an unfavorable opinion and 29% have no opinion. Democrats are more divided in their view of Roberts, with 35% rating him favorably and 31% unfavorably. Thirty-four percent of Democrats do not have an opinion about Roberts.

Since late July, Republicans have shown essentially no change in their ratings of Roberts. However, Democrats have become more willing to rate Roberts since that time. In July, half of Democrats did not know enough about Roberts to rate him, while the rest were equally divided in their view of him.

Blacks More Negative Than Whites About Roberts' Confirmation

The Sept. 8-11 poll, which included an oversample of blacks, finds substantial differences between whites' and blacks' assessments of Roberts.

Blacks are much less likely than whites to say the Senate should vote to confirm Roberts as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Among blacks, only 27% support his confirmation to the Court, while 44% oppose it and 29% do not have an opinion either way. Among whites, 61% support the confirmation, 23% oppose it, and 16% offer no opinion.

Blacks also are more negative than positive in their ratings of Roberts, with 14% rating him favorably and 26% unfavorably. The majority of blacks (60%) do not know enough about the nominee to rate him. In contrast, a majority of whites (54%) rate Roberts favorably, 14% rate him unfavorably, and 32% do not have an opinion.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,005 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Sept. 8-11, 2005. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.

Results for the sample of 262 blacks, aged 18 and older, are based on telephone interviews conducted Sept. 8-11, 2005, some of which were drawn from Gallup's Sept. 8-11 national sample and some of which were drawn from a special black oversample. The combined sample of blacks is weighted to be representative of U.S. blacks. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±7 percentage points.

Results for the sample of 848 non-Hispanic whites, aged 18 and older, are based on telephone interviews conducted Sept. 8-11, 2005 drawn from the national sample poll. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

The poll did not dial into some of the areas of Louisiana and Mississippi that were declared federal disaster areas following Hurricane Katrina. This amounts to about 0.75% of the U.S. population.