One of the ongoing debates about the Supreme Court, perhaps more so since nominations of justices became focal points for partisan battles, is the role the ideology of the justices play in their decisions. The New York Times editorialized last June that recent court decisions raised “the question of whether there is still a line between the court and politics, an issue since the Republican-led Rehnquist court decided Bush v. Gore in 2000.”
Credit: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll
A Kaiser Health Tracking Poll conducted Jan. 12-17 found that 75 percent of those surveyed believed that Supreme Court justices sometimes let their own ideological views influence decisions compared to 17 percent who said they usually decided cases based on legal analysis. Nine percent expressed no opinion.
Kaiser’s focus was on the health care reform act. The Supreme Court is due to hear arguments next March in a case challenging the federal government’s right to require all Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a financial penalty, (otherwise summed up as the “individual mandate).
Fifty-four percent of those in the Kaiser survey said the court should declare the mandate unconstitutional while 17 percent wanted the justices to uphold it. Twenty-nine percent expressed. Fifty-five percent predicted the court will in fact overturn the mandate while 29 percent said it would deem it constitutional. Sixteen percent expressed no opinion.
Fifty-five percent said that even if the mandate is struck down, some parts of the health care law would be implemented. Thirty percent believed that striking down the mandate would effectively mean the end of the entire law, with the rest expressing no opinion.