Fox News Poll Says Supreme Court Justices Should Be Good Judges? Duh

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

This falls into the "duh" category. Fox News is only the latest organization to release a poll showing many Americans believe judicial experience should be the most important factor in choosing the next Supreme Court Justice, outweighing race, gender, or any other factor, including the candidate's position on issues:

The latest FOX News poll shows nearly half of voters nationwide--45 percent--think judicial experience should be the "single most important factor" in picking the next justice. Five percent say being a woman should be the single most important factor, 4 percent say being a minority and 4 percent say being a homosexual. About 1 in 10 people (12 percent) think sharing President Obama's views on key issues should be the single most important quality.

But American public opinion begs several questions on this point. First, there are plenty of experienced jurists of all genders, colors, sexual preferences, and so on. So lack of experience is not a barrier to picking someone who also brings some sort of diversity to the table. It may have been a barrier two decades ago, but not now.

Also, if Americans think presidents don't take a nominee's political views into account, they must be vacationing here and living on another planet.

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