Public opinion could sway Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage

Los Angeles Times ^ | March 1, 2013, 5:14 p.m. | David G. Savage, Washington Bureau

[Olog-hai]

Public opinion on marriage for gay and lesbian couples has shifted with almost unprecedented speed since California voters banned such unions in 2008.

That shift could influence the Supreme Court, in particular Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and possibly Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., as it decides whether to uphold Proposition 8 in coming months. …

Kennedy, along with others on the court, probably would also resist going too fast. The current justices, both liberals and conservatives, say the court of the early 1970s made a mistake by striking down all state laws on abortion and capital punishment. Both decisions appeared to trigger a backlash, and the death penalty was soon restored to law.

Better to move in line with—or just slightly ahead of—shifting opinion, they believe. …

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Yeah public opinion. If we went with public opinion we never would have had a war for independence. The nation was bout 1/3 Tory,1/3 Rebelling Colonists, an 1/3 living out in hinterlands and not really caring one way or the other.
The day public opinion sways Constitutional law we are in trouble...well heck we are already in trouble since we are discussing it.
Freegards
LEX

[PROTESTBYPROXY]

Yeah, it really did wonders for Obamacare!!!

[OKRA2012]

Your analysis or Response Rates is quite accurate.

However, you do not mention the requirement of pollsters to meet every quota cell in the sample universe.

Therefore, if the pollster is conducting a poll in an area where 10% of the population is black female between the ages of 29 and 39 with a college, and living in a household making between 50 and 59 thousand a year, the poll is not complete until that quota cell is filled.

Polling in an accurate science and all you need to do is look at recent elections and you will see that most polls fall within the margin of error.

[MHGinTN]

Public opinion? HAH! The pirate Roberts will vote as he is told to vote, or his secrets will be exposed. Public opinion be damned.

[Chode]

thank you...

[freedomfiter2]

Public opinion on marriage for gay and lesbian couples has shifted with almost unprecedented speed since California voters banned such unions in 2008.

That shift could influence the Supreme Court, in particular Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and possibly Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., as it decides whether to uphold Proposition 8 in coming months. …

If that’s true then they aren’t fit to sit on any bench let alone the US Supreme Court.

[Iron Munro]

Warning! Do Not Play With Queers.

You Could End Up Like Biscuit.

[Mygirlsmom]

Public opinion was once very much in favor of slavery.

[muawiyah]

you are assuming that a pollster has an infinite supply of money ~

The problem with a sampling universe in this is far more complex than raw numbers ~ when you are down to a 9% response rate from the public at large you have to give up all those additional factors ~ else you'd have to call hundreds of thousands of phones, and when that happens the influence of respondents with multiple phone lines grows ~ which it may well have in Romney's case ~ (the rich have more phone numbers than the poor and middle class ~ and even then we found ourselves with 5 active numbers!).

The pollsters ~ who are not as stupid as we imagine ~ stepped back and began running what can only be called AUGURIES!

I think some of my original Freeper posts on AUGURIES are still accessible through Google.com by asking for FREEREPUBLIC MUAWIYAH AUGURIES.

Except for pre-selected targets I"m afraid random sampling polling may be a dying art. There are other methods that need to be brought to play.

[carlo3b]

That accounts for the totally inaccurate polls I’ve seem lately, but not for the decline in morality that I have witnessed in today’s culture..

My own sons recently went through college and came home with views that are vastly different than they were when they left home.. They both told me that the overwhelming, and sole views being accepted in higher education forbids any countervailing attitudes toward Gay, Abortion, Cultural and Religion, will be met with scorn and or banishment..

This punishment was liberally dealt out by the entire academic community, but most surprising of all, was the vehement rejection of any level of civility, and morality, that came from the women and girls in their classes.. The decay that we find in our culture has a foothold in the females among us..

The former buttress within a family against the unholy, our former gatekeepers, are now becoming the perpetrators of evil that has overtaken the culture, and will ultimately signal our decline..

We men are becoming weak and without shame.. Men are not at all blameless, and equally at fault, but the single thread that held the fabric of our society together, were and continues to be, our Mothers.. If and apparently when this seam fails, so well we all...

[heye2monn]

Ironically, the lynch mob is led by blacks. Ninety five percent of them voted for Obama. If that isn’t a mob, nothing is.

[Political Junkie Too]

The public already thinks that 25% of the population is gay. If they find out that the actual number is closer to 3%, would they still think the same thing?

-PJ

[a fool in paradise]

So say the pink journalistas. Why should I believe anything Anderson Pooper, Andrew Sullivan, or anything any of the other closets rump thumpers say on this issue? They have a stick in the game that they don’t reveal to the home audience.

I tuned out the Pravda Media long ago.

[GOPJ]

...let’s trash the rule of law for the rule of so-called “public opinion”, and not even the true opinion of the public.

Craig's List has job offers listed by Democrats looking for paid 'rent a crowd' "protesters"...

Rachael Maddow hires shills to pretend on Twitter that they're real people - praising her!

Rush Limbaugh get fake calls from dems pretending to be Republicans...

...and the Supreme Court is stupid enough to think 'public opinion' is real? Gimme a break ... ONLY democrats are stupid enough to buy that bullsh*t ...

[highball]

You could be easily misled into thinking a Romacain was winning and a Gobama was losing.

Yeah, except nobody who actually read the polls thought that. The polls had Obama all the way. Only the people who didn't like what the polls were saying bought into the whole "unskewed polls" nonsense.

I agree that public opinion polls ought to have no bearing on Supreme Court decisions, but they do on political strategy, so it's important that we don't pretend they can be as accurate as they can be. This is all too important to bury our heads in the sand.

[Persevero]

Public opinion didn’t seem to matter much when ObamaCare was before the Court.

[OKRA2012]

Sampling strategies will be altered once it is proven that current strategies are faulty. However, current strategies are for them most part accurate as polling prior to the 2012 election was within the margin of error.

[newzjunkey]

Notice Democrats love of democracy fails when the voters don’t agree with them.

[jeffc]

Notice Democrats love of democracy fails when the voters don’t agree with them.

Yeah. Then they turn to the courts. And they always seem able to find a sympathetic judge!!

[muawiyah]

They've been doing Auguries for a number of years ~

Sure, they describe it as supplementary analysis and inormation, but that's what the Roman Augurs called it too ~ gossip, innueno, bird poop on the courtyard!!!!!

It hasn't changed. But the polling methods in use for the last 50 years MUST change!