- WASHINGTON (AP) -- A majority
of Americans say U.S. President George W. Bush's next choice for an opening
on the Supreme Court should be willing to uphold the landmark court decision
protecting abortion rights, an Associated Press poll found.
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- The poll found that 59 per cent say Mr. Bush should choose
a nominee who would uphold the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized
abortion. About three in 10, 31 per cent, said they want a nominee who
would overturn the decision, according to the poll conducted for the AP
by Ipsos-Public Affairs.
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- "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.
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- 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 favoured
a nominee who would uphold the abortion ruling.
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- Mr. Bush has sidestepped questions about whom he would
name to an opening, but he has indicated that he would pick judges like
those he picked in his first term ñ often young and conservative.
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- 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.
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- While there are no current openings on the high court,
only one of the nine justices, Clarence Thomas, is under 65 and Chief Justice
William Rehnquist, 80, has thyroid cancer.
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- The AP-Ipsos poll found that six in 10 think that justices
should face a mandatory retirement age.
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- The appointment of justices without term limits or a
mandatory retirement age historically has helped to insulate the court
from politics, said Dennis Hutchinson of the University of Chicago Law
School. At the same time, that can have the unintended consequence of letting
some justices serve beyond their most effective years.
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- The poll question mentioned no specific retirement age.
Appointment of Supreme Court justices for life is dictated by the Constitution
and could be changed only by an amendment.
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- People over 65 were among those most likely to favour
mandatory retirement, according to the poll.
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- "The justices hold office year after year,"
said Opal Bristow, an 84-year-old Democrat and retired teacher who lives
near San Antonio. "Some of them are old codgers who need to get out
of the way and let the younger folks with fresh ideas come in."
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- 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 or her position on abortion before confirmation.
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- The survey found that 61 per cent of all respondents
said Supreme Court nominees should state their position on abortion before
being approved for the job.
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- "In a perfect world they wouldn't have to talk about
it," said Kenneth Cole, 39, a consultant from Columbus, Ohio, and
a Republican who leans toward wanting Roe v. Wade overturned. "But
whoever President Bush nominates, people will know where they stand. They
won't be able to avoid the issue."
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- Another issue the Supreme Court will have to deal with
at some point is homosexual marriage.
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- By 61 per cent to 35 per cent, people opposed gay marriage,
with young adults between 18 and 29 about evenly split. Recent polls have
indicated that people are about evenly divided on the question of civil
unions, which would provide many of the same legal protections as gay marriage.
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- The AP-Ipsos poll of 1,000 adults was taken Nov. 19-21
and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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