Skip to main content

US: Where the public stands on key issues that could come before the Supreme Court

SCOTUS
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to begin confirmation hearings on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

If confirmed, Kavanaugh would replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired in July after 3 decades on the court.

In a Pew Research Center survey just after Kavanaugh's nomination, Americans were divided: 41% said he should be confirmed, 36% said he should not and 23% offered no opinion. 

There was far more agreement over the importance of the selection itself: 83% of U.S. adults said the choice of the next Supreme Court justice is important to them personally, including 63% who said it is very important.

Ahead of the Senate's deliberations over Kavanaugh, here's a look at where the public stands on some of the major legal, political and social issues that could come before the justices in the years ahead, based on surveys conducted by Pew Research Center.

Abortion


Little public support for overturning Roe v. Wade as of 2016

The high court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade - which established a woman's constitutional right to an abortion - has loomed large over recent nominations to the court, and Kavanaugh's is no exception.

In the Center's July survey, 39% of Americans said they thought Kavanaugh would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade if he is confirmed. Smaller shares said he would not overturn the ruling (29%) or said it wouldn't matter or gave no opinion (32%). On a separate question, 61% said Supreme Court nominees should be required to answer senators' questions on issues like abortion during confirmation hearings.

There is little public support for a complete reversal of Roe v. Wade. In a survey from December 2016 - the last time the Center asked about it - around 3-in-10 U.S. adults (28%) said they would like to see the Supreme Court completely overturn Roe v. Wade, but around 7-in-10 (69%) said they would not.

On a more general question about abortion that the Center asked in June 2017, around 6-in-10 U.S. adults (57%) said abortion should be legal in all or most cases while 40% said it should be illegal in all or most cases. Public support for abortion rights has remained relatively steady in recent decades.

Americans' views about abortion differ markedly by their political and religious affiliation and educational background. 3/4 of Democrats, for example, believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, but around 2/3 of Republicans (65%) take the opposite view. 6-in-10 independents say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Death penalty


Death penalty support ticks up in 2018 after years of decline

The Supreme Court often has the last word on whether individual executions in the United States can proceed or not, and the justices have ruled on several broad legal questions related to capital punishment since they effectively reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Over the past 2 decades, public support for capital punishment has declined substantially in the U.S., as have death sentences and executions. But in the Center's most recent survey on the death penalty - conducted this past April and May - support was up slightly: A narrow majority of Americans (54%) said they favored the death penalty for people convicted of murder, up from 49% in 2016. Partisans were sharply divided: Around 3/4 of Republicans (77%) supported the death penalty for those convicted of murder, while a majority of Democrats (59%) opposed it. Independents were more inclined to support the death penalty than oppose it (52% versus 40%).

Elections


Recent Supreme Court decisions on subjects including redistricting, voting rights and campaign finance have shaped the way American elections are carried out. A major Pew Research Center report earlier this year explored how Americans see various aspects of their electoral system.

The study found broad public agreement over the importance of certain issues related to voting. For example, 2/3 of Americans (67%) said it is very important for U.S. elections that no ineligible voters are permitted to vote. Around 7-in-10 (72%) said it is very important that congressional districts are fairly drawn, and more than 8-in-10 (83%) said it is very important that no eligible voters are denied the vote.

But Americans are skeptical about whether these goals are being achieved in practice, the survey found. Around 3-in-10 U.S. adults (29%) said either of the following 2 statements - "no eligible voters are prevented from voting" and "no ineligible voters are permitted to vote" - describe the country's elections very well. And only 12% said the statement "the way congressional voting districts are determined is fair and reasonable" describes U.S. elections very well.

The same report found that Americans overwhelmingly support limits on campaign contributions and believe new laws could reduce the role of money in politics. Around 3/4 of U.S. adults (77%) said there should be limits on the amount of money that individuals and groups can spend on political campaigns, while 20% said individuals and groups should be able to spend as much as they want. And around 2/3 of Americans (65%) said new laws could be written to effectively reduce the role of money in politics, while 31% said such laws would not be effective.

Gun rights

Some gun policy proposals draw bipartisan support

In a pair of groundbreaking cases in 2008 and 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees an individual right to bear arms and that state and local governments cannot violate that right. The 2 rulings have underpinned recent debates over gun policy proposals in Congress and in state legislatures.

The U.S. public is narrowly divided over whether it's more important to control gun ownership or protect the right of Americans to own guns. In a 2017 survey, 51% said it was more important to control gun ownership, while 47% said protecting the right to own guns is more important. There were wide partisan differences on this question, with Republicans and Republican-leaning independents more than three times as likely as Democrats and Democratic leaners to say it's more important to protect the right to own guns. (Explore long-term partisan and demographic trends on this question using this interactive.)

Some gun policy ideas receive broad support from Democrats and Republicans alike, according to surveys conducted in 2017. For example, nearly 9-in-10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (89%) - and the same share of Republicans and GOP leaners - said they strongly or somewhat favor preventing mentally ill people from purchasing firearms. And at least 8-in-10 adults in both groups said they favor preventing people on no-fly or watch lists from buying guns (85% among Democrats, 82% among Republicans).

But many other commonly proposed ideas drew sharp partisan differences. 8-in-10 Democrats favored a ban on assault-style weapons, compared with 54% of Republicans. A similar share of Democrats (79%) supported a ban on high-capacity magazines, compared with 47% of Republicans. And while clear majorities of Republicans supported proposals to allow concealed carry in more places and to allow teachers and other officials to carry guns in K-12 schools (72% and 69%, respectively), those proposals were backed by just 26% of Democrats.

Labor unions


One of the biggest cases of the Supreme Court's most recent term involved public employee labor unions. In a 5-4 decision, the justices ruled that public-sector workers who are represented by unions - but are not members of them - cannot be required to pay fees that cover the costs of the union's contract negotiations. The decision overturned a 1977 high court ruling and was seen as a major setback for unions.

Union membership in the U.S. has declined substantially in recent decades: The share of wage and salaried workers who are members of unions declined from 20.1% in 1983 to 10.7% in 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

When it comes to public opinion, Americans generally have a favorable view of unions and believe that the long-term decline in their membership has been more of a bad thing than a good thing.

A 55% majority of U.S. adults said earlier this year that they view labor unions favorably, compared with a third who viewed them unfavorably. These views have fluctuated over the past two decades, but are now more positive than they were during the Great Recession. In the same survey, around 1/2 of Americans (51%) said the reduction in union representation over the past 20 years has been mostly bad for working people, while around 1/3 (35%) said it has been mostly good.

Same-sex marriage


Public support for same-sex marriage reached new milestone in 2017

The justices effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in a major 2015 ruling. But even before the decision, public opinion had turned in favor of gay marriage. In the Center's most recent survey on the question - conducted in June 2017 - 62% of Americans said they favored allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, about twice the share who opposed it (32%). As recently as 2010, a larger share of Americans had opposed than favored allowing gay and lesbian people to marry legally (48% vs. 42%).

Source: Pew Research Center, John Gramich, August 30, 2018


⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!



"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Labels

Labels:
Location: United States

Most viewed (Last 7 days)

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000.   Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city.  The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said.  'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'
Post a Comment
Read more

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.
Post a Comment
Read more

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.
Post a Comment
Read more

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.
Post a Comment
Read more

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.
Post a Comment
Read more

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.
Post a Comment
Read more

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.
Post a Comment
Read more

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles.  The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.
Post a Comment
Read more