Two-thirds of Americans want the Senate to hold a hearing for a potential Supreme Court nominee put forth by President Barack Obama, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Thursday.
Sixty-six percent of respondents said anyone Obama nominates for the nation’s highest court should get a hearing from the thus far uncooperative, Republican-led Senate. Senate GOP leadership has told the President they will not consider anyone he nominates.
Furthermore, 58 percent of respondents said they would like to see Obama fill the seat rather than leave the appointing to the next President. Forty-one percent said they would prefer a vacancy.
Respondents were spilt about what ideological position they hoped the nominee would have. Thirty-seven percent said a new justice should “keep the Court as it was.” Thirty-two percent said the nominee should make the court more liberal, while 29 percent said the nominee should make the court more conservative.
Respondents were also split on whether Senate Republicans should be able to use procedures like a filibuster to block a potential nominee: 48 percent said it would be justified while 47 percent said it wouldn’t be justified. The poll results noted that in a 2006 CNN/USA Today poll, 48 percent of respondents said Senate Democrats wouldn’t have been justified in using similar tactics to oppose Justice Samuel Alito’s nomination.
The poll was conducted among 1,001 adults, 920 of whom were registered voters, from Feb. 24-27 by telephone. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.