All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

The Supreme Court today ruled in favor of white firefighters in the closely watched New Haven, Conn., case, finding that they were unfairly denied promotion.

With that in mind, we took a look at recent polling on the public's opinion about affirmation action, which shows that slightly more Americans favor than oppose affirmative action generally.

In this particular case, the group of white firefighters, the plaintiffs, believed they were discriminated against when the city of New Haven threw out the results of an exam because too few minorities scored high enough.

A CBS News/New York Times Poll, conducted June 12-16, found 50 percent in favor of programs that make special efforts to help minorities get ahead, with 41 percent opposed. For over a decade more Americans have favored affirmative action programs than opposed them.


Six in ten Republicans oppose such programs, while 67 percent of Democrats favor them. Independents are divided, with 44 percent in favor and 46 percent opposed.

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Support for same-sex marriage has declined slightly from two months ago, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds.

On other issues that have come before the Supreme Court -- namely, affirmative action and abortion -- Americans' opinions have remained relatively stable for years, according to the poll, conducted June 12 - 16.

Most Americans support some legal recognition of a same-sex couple’s relationship. The poll found 33 percent favor marriage for same-sex couples, down somewhat from a high of 42 percent in April, and another 30 percent support civil unions. A third of Americans think there should be no legal recognition of a same-sex couple’s relationship. Views in this poll are similar to those found back in March of this year.

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