The majoritarian ‘difficulty’
By A poll about the Supreme Court yields typical findings:
The survey found that 59 percent of respondents said they favor choosing a nominee who would uphold Roe v. Wade, while 31 percent wanted a nominee who would overturn the ruling.
While the public is generally divided on the abortion issue, polling consistently has found a clear majority of people who think abortion should be legal in at least some cases. The preference for Supreme Court nominees who would uphold Roe v. Wade could be found among both men and women, most age groups, most income groups and people living in urban, suburban and rural areas. Fewer than half of Republicans, evangelicals and those over 65 said they favored a nominee who would uphold the abortion ruling.
“While I don’t have a strong feeling about abortions personally, I wouldn’t want the law overturned and return to the days of backdoor abortions,” said Colleen Dunn, 40, a Republican and community college teacher who lives outside Philadelphia.
The survey found that 61 percent of respondents said Supreme Court nominees should state their position on abortion before being approved for the job.Most of those who have taken a position on whether a nominee should uphold or overturn Roe v. Wade say they wanted a nominee to state his position on abortion before confirmation. Almost two-thirds of each group said they would want to know.
So, most Americans 1)support Roe v. Wade, 2)believe that it’s legitimate for justices appointed for political reasons to have the political implications of their legal beliefs scrutinized, and 3)care more about the outcome of the case than its judicial reasoning.
Of course, all three of these results are completely unsurprising; they’re worth pointing out only because so many progressives routinely assert the opposite on all three points. I can understand why Robert Bork asserts that if the court disagrees with him it must be counter-majoritarian; why so many progressives go along with this is baffling. Roe may be right or wrong, but it is not “counter-majoritarian” in any meaningful sense.
Later today: why Roe was right on the merits.