Supreme Court

40% Have Favorable Opinion of U.S. Supreme Court

Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters

October 29-30, 2005

U.S. Supreme Court
Favorable	40%
Unfavorable	33%
RasmussenReports.com

October 31, 2005--On the morning President Bush nominated appeals court Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, 40% of Americans have a favorable opinion of that Court. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 33% have an unfavorable opinion.

In mid-summer, the numbers for the Supreme Court were 42% favorable and 41% unfavorable.

The Court is now viewed favorably by 51% of Republicans, 34% of Democrats, and 34% of those not affiliated with either major political party.

Before Roberts was confirmed as Chief Justice, just 40% of Republicans had a favorable opinion of the Supreme Court. That view was shared by 40% of Democrats.

Thirty-two percent (32%) of Americans believe the Supreme Court has too much power while 9% say not enough. Half (49%) say it has the right amount of power. There is little partisan difference on this point.

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Forty-two percent (42%) of Americans last week said that the withdrawal of the President's previous nominee, Harriet Miers, was good for the country.

Cultural issues, often decided by Supreme Court rulings were the most important issue for 10% of voters on Election Day, 2004. These voters overwhelmingly supported President Bush.

Forty-six percent (46%) of Americans say the Supreme Court is too hostile to religion.

Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.

Rasmussen Reports was the nation's most accurate polling firm during the Presidential election and the only one to project both Bush and Kerry's vote total within half a percentage point of the actual outcome.

During Election 2004, RasmussenReports.com was also the top-ranked public opinion research site on the web. We had twice as many visitors as our nearest competitor and nearly as many as all competitors combined.

Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.

This survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted by Rasmussen Reports July 7, 2005. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.