The Obama's administration's efforts to persuade the public to pressure the Senate over its refusal to hold a hearing for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland have apparently had little influence, a new
Rasmussen Reports survey shows.
Despite President Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership spending much energy on the issue in recent months, the public has not changed its mind significantly and do not have a particularly favorable opinion of Garland
According to the poll:
- 52 percent say Obama should choose the next Supreme Court justice;
- 45 percent say the next president should;
- 80 percent of Democrats want Obama to choose justice;
- 75 percent of Republicans want the next president to do so;
- 38 percent have a favorable opinion of Garland;
- 23 percent unfavorable;
- 38 percent don't know enough to offer opinion on him.
If the next president does make choice, 47 percent say Hillary Clinton would offer a better pick, while 43 percent believe Donald Trump would do so.
When Obama nominated Garland in March following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia the previous month, Republicans said they would not even hold hearings on any nominee because, with the election so soon, it should be the next president that chooses a justice.
Obama said the work of the Supreme Court is too crucial to be left in limbo for such a long period and citizens should be pressuring their senators to do their jobs and vote for Garland, who he says has the respect of both liberals and conservatives.
The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on May 19-22. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points.
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