New Polls Show Most Americans Support Barrett's Nomination, Oppose Court Packing
New polls show that a majority of Americans support Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation but oppose the idea of court packing.
A Sept. 30-Oct. 15 Gallup poll found that 51 percent of Americans think the Senate should vote to confirm Barrett to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
However, 46 percent of poll respondents do not want Barrett to be confirmed, while 3 percent do not have an opinion on her nomination.
The public’s support for Barrett is higher than support for both Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh following their nominations to the court.
Initial opposition to her nomination is also higher than opposition to any other nominee since Gallup started asking this question, mostly because the percentage of Americans without any opinion on the vote is lower than any for other nominee in Gallup history.
On average, 25 percent of Americans have not had an opinion on the Supreme Court nominees “in the initial measure after the president’s selection,” Gallup reported.
One of the reasons Gallup cited for the high proportion of Americans expressing opinions on the confirmation is that the nomination process is occurring during a presidential election cycle.
“Notably, although more Americans want to see Barrett confirmed than not, polling by other organizations has shown solid majorities wanting the winner of the Nov. 3 election and the newly elected Senate to make the nomination rather than President Trump and the current Senate,” Gallup reported.
Democrats have also pointed to a precedent set in 2016 when Republican senators refused to consider former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland eight months before the election that year.
The Gallup poll results are comparable to a Morning Consult/Politico poll that found support for Barrett has continued to rise steadily since her nomination.
Eighty-four percent of Democrats in the Gallup poll said they are against Barrett’s nomination, exceeding the 67 percent who opposed Kavanaugh after his nomination and the 78 percent who opposed him after his hearings.
Republican support for Barrett’s nomination is higher than for any nominee since 1987, with 89 percent supporting her confirmation.
A poll from The New York Times/Siena College Research Institute found similar results, with 44 percent supporting Barrett’s nomination and 42 percent opposing it.
Forty-seven percent of poll respondents said that the Senate should vote on Barrett’s nomination before the election while 39 percent said the vote should only happen if Trump wins re-election.
When it came to court packing, or increasing the size of the Supreme Court to include more than nine justices, 58 percent opposed the idea while only 31 percent supported it.
The Gallup poll was conducted via telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,035 adults and a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.
The New York Times/Siena College Research Institute poll was conducted between Oct. 15 and Oct. 18 with a random sample of 987 likely voters and a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points.
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