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Three in five American voters believe televising U.S. Supreme Court hearings would be "good for democracy," according to the results of a national Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll made public Tuesday.
The figure (61 percent) compares to a quarter (26 percent) who say televising the court would "undermine the authority and dignity of the court."
Liberals are significantly more likely than conservatives to think televising the court would be a good development (71 percent to 55 percent). Younger Americans are more likely to think televising the court is good for democracy than their elders, while two-thirds of Democrats (66 percent) and nearly the same percentage of independents (64 percent) agree that Supreme Court TV would be good for democracy. Only half of Republicans (53 percent) agree.
"Party leaders have not made clear to voters their position on this question," said Peter Woolley, a political scientist and poll director. "Nonetheless, voters sort themselves out into familiar dividing lines, Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative," Woolley said. "Liberals, not surprisingly, are more likely to think that more media access is necessarily a good thing."But Bruce Peabody, a political scientist who has written extensively on televising the Supreme Court, said, "The partisan split is interesting because one might expect Republicans to be more skeptical of government institutions and therefore more inclined to see televised proceedings as a way of keeping a careful watch on Washington."
Opinions are mixed when voters are asked to consider the effect of television coverage on court decisions: 45 percent say TV would be good "because the judges would consider public opinion more" when making decisions, but 31 percent say it would be bad for the same reason – because justices would consider public opinion too much when making decisions. Twenty-five percent are unsure or say TV would have no effect.
A majority of Americans presently watch government proceedings infrequently if at all, and three of four have heard little if anything about proposals to televise the Supreme Court. But in contrast to their current habit of tuning out government proceedings, half of Americans (50 percent) say they would watch Supreme Court hearings sometimes or regularly if they were televised. Only 10 percent say they'd never watch the court.
"Voters are certainly curious about the court, which is both powerful and largely out of the public eye," said Woolley. "After the novelty wears off, the primary audience might be lawyers and lobbyists, rather than any broad swath of voters. Most voters will only see it when commercial media select the most controversial bits and pieces."
Peabody noted, "The rationale for televising the court is not to guarantee the public will watch it, but to give democracy's citizens more opportunities to educate themselves. It is unlikely people will know more about the court by seeing it less."
The poll also explores limiting the terms of the Supreme Court justices, currently appointed for life. A majority of Americans (56 percent) approve limiting them to a maximum term of 18 years. No strong partisan differences on this issue emerge. Four of the nine justices have served more than 18 years, and three of those are considered the most conservative on the court.
Nearly a third of Americans (31 percent) agree that over 70 is too old to serve on the bench but nearly half (48 percent) say a justice can't be too old as long as he or she is healthy. The oldest justice is 90 this year. Four others are over 70. The youngest, the chief justice, turned 55 this year.
PublicMind conducted the poll of 1,002 registered voters nationwide by telephone from Jan. 24 through Feb. 6. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
– TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
