Supreme Court

Nearly two weeks after the announcement of the selection of Harriet Miers to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, controversy continues to surround the nomination. Recent polling, conducted October 6-10, 2005, by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press indicates that much of the public remains undecided about whether or […]

Summary of Findings Americans are divided over whether Harriet Miers should be confirmed to the Supreme Court. Based on what they have heard so far, a third say they favor Miers’ confirmation, while 27% are opposed; four-in-ten express no opinion. In mid-September, about two months after John Roberts had been nominated to the court, the […]

The confirmation hearings for Harriet Miers to become a justice of the Supreme Court will once again highlight a complex web of issues related to abortion, on which she may become the swing vote. While activists on both sides describe abortion as an issue on which there is no middle ground, decades of polling have […]

On October 5, 2005, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Gonzales v. Oregon, a case arising from the conflict between Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act and the U.S. attorney general’s interpretation of the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Oregon’s law, which was twice approved by the state’s voters, permits physicians to prescribe […]

Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. Oregon has twice, by ballot initiative, adopted a measure allowing for physician-assisted suicide. The measure, known as the “Death With Dignity Act,” raises serious moral and ethical questions, and was challenged by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Department contended that it had the right to invalidate the law, […]

Almost 150 years after Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking theory on the origins of life, Americans are still fighting over evolution. If anything, the controversy is growing in both size and intensity. Recent polls indicate that challenges to Darwinian evolution have substantial support among the American people. According to a July 2005 survey sponsored by […]

National Press Club Washington, D.C. In late September 2005, Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District et al. went to trial in federal district court in Pennsylvania. The plaintiffs challenged the decision of the Dover School Board requiring that public schools teach that intelligent design is an alternative theory to evolution. The plaintiffs alleged […]

Summary of Findings With hearings on the nomination of John Roberts beginning today in Washington, a growing number of Americans say that Roberts should be confirmed as chief justice. In polling conducted over the weekend by the Pew Research Center, 46% expressed support for Roberts’s confirmation, up from 35% in a poll conducted last week. […]

Summary of Findings Abortion has dominated the early skirmishing over President Bush’s nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court. But the public takes a more expansive view of the court’s agenda. Indeed, about as many Americans rate the rights of detained terrorist suspects as a very important issue for the Supreme Court as say […]

Abortion has dominated the early skirmishing over President Bush’s nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court. But the public takes a more expansive view of the court’s agenda. Indeed, about as many Americans rate the rights of detained terrorist suspects as a very important issue for the Supreme Court as say that about abortion. […]