President Joe Biden appealed to Black and women voters with his campaign promise to bring a Black woman justice to the Supreme Court for the first time, but a large majority of Americans told the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll they want gender and race not to be the deciding factors.
Just 23% polled want Biden to keep his vow to pick a Black woman, while 76% want "all possible nominees" considered.
Justice Stephen Breyer was a liberal justice, one of three on the nine-member Supreme Court. There are five conservative justices and a Chief Justice John Roberts, who was brought by a Republican but has sided with the liberal justices on a number of rulings.
"The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity – and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court," Biden told reporters this week as Breyer made his retirement announcement amid rumors. "It's long overdue in my view. I made that commitment during the campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment."
But, even a majority of Democrats (54%) prefer Biden would consider all potential nominees.
There was also a plurality of adults (43%) polled that believe justices rule "on the basis of their partisan political views," a figure 5 points ahead of the 38% that said justices rule "on the basis of the law."
There were a number of concerning results for Biden, according to the poll:
- 69% disapprove of Biden's handling of inflation.
- Just 1% see the U.S. economy as "excellent."
- About 75% say the economy was "not so good" or "poor."
- 69% disapprove of Biden on gun violence.
- 64% disapprove of his handling of crime.
- 64% disapprove of him on immigration.
- 56% disapprove of his handling of the Russia-Ukraine tensions.
- 56% disapprove on Biden's work on economic recovery.
Ipsos Public Affairs' KnowledgePanel® polled 510 adults Jan. 28-29 and the results have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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