Government

On Nov. 18, 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage following a ruling by the state’s highest court. In the years since the Massachusetts decision, five additional states have legalized gay marriage, and 29 states have amended their constitutions to ban gay marriage.

How the question is phrased has a clear impact on whether the public rates deficit reduction or stimulus spending more important.

Overview A solid majority of Americans (61%) continue to approve of Barack Obama’s job performance, although they express mixed views of several of his policies. An important positive sign for Obama is the public’s continued optimism that his policies will improve the economy – fully 65% express this view. A smaller majority (55%) is optimistic […]

The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, established by President Barack Obama, plans to expand partnerships between the government and faith-based and community organizations for the delivery of social services. What lessons can be learned from the preceding eight years of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President George […]

Overview Centrism has emerged as a dominant factor in public opinion as the Obama era begins. The political values and core attitudes that the Pew Research Center has monitored since 1987 show little overall ideological movement. Republicans and Democrats are even more divided than in the past, while the growing political middle is steadfastly mixed […]

Obama says empathy is one of the qualities he'll be looking for in a new Supreme Court justice. Meantime, his White House has floated a list of possible nominees that's stacked heavily with women. Coincidence?

In this research package Public Opinion on Same-Sex Marriage Slideshow: Changing Attitudes on Gay Marriage Overview of Same-Sex Marriage in the U.S. Gay Marriage and the Law Religious Groups’ Official Positions on Gay Marriage Gay Marriage Around the World Graphic: State Policies on Same-Sex Marriage Q&A: Gay Marriage and the Free Exercise of Religion   […]

Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in May 2009 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Ever since then-Sen. Barack Obama spoke of his admiration for Reinhold Niebuhr in a 2007 interview with New York Times columnist David Brooks, there has been speculation […]

Updated May 7, 2009 Amid intense public debate over the use of torture against suspected terrorists, an analysis by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life of a new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press illustrates differences in the views of four major religious traditions in […]