Sept. 21, 2020

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MILWAUKEE — Marquette Law School will release the results of a national survey of public opinion about the U.S. Supreme Court over the course of three days, Sept. 23-25.

Each day will feature a video conversation between poll director Charles Franklin and Mike Gousha, distinguished fellow in law and public policy, available at 12:15 p.m. CST on the Marquette Law School website. Results and commentary will be synchronously released on Twitter via the @MULawPoll account. The poll was conducted Sept. 8-15.

A news release and poll data for each day’s content, including toplines and crosstabs, will be available at 12:30 p.m. via email and on the Marquette Law School Poll website.

An advisory detailing media availability will be distributed at a later time.

The Marquette Law School Poll on Saturday, Sept. 19, issued its first release of findings from the national survey, completed earlier in the week. That release concerned both public views of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had died the previous day, and the possibility of a nomination to the Supreme Court during this election year

The national survey of over 1,500 respondents is the second conducted by Marquette Law School, after a poll released in October 2019, and focuses on three topics concerning the Court:

• Wednesday, Sept. 23: How do people view nominations and the justices? How important is the Court to people, and under what circumstances should nominees be confirmed or rejected? How do voters link the Court to their vote for president? Wednesday’s release also looks at how the public views the current justices.
• Thursday, Sept. 24: How is the Court doing? The Supreme Court draws strength from its legitimacy in the public eye. How does the current Court stack up in public confidence, both in approval of its work and when compared to other institutions? Beyond confidence in the Court, how willing are Americans to restructure the institution and powers of the Court?
• Friday, Sept. 25: What does the public think of recent decisions? The poll asks the public whether it supports or opposes some recent decisions and how it views potential future issues that may come before the Court. What factors structure the public’s views of these issues, and which issues are more salient to which groups of citizens?

The Marquette Law School Poll, begun in 2012, is the most extensive statewide polling project in Wisconsin history. Since 2019, the Law School’s survey of national public opinion about the U.S. Supreme Court has expanded the work of the poll not only geographically but also to an important new set of topics of broad importance. Franklin has directed the poll since its inception and is a professor of law and public policy at Marquette Law School. His scholarly articles on partisanship, public opinion and the Supreme Court, and U.S. Senate elections have appeared in a number of major journals and as book chapters. He is a past president of the Society for Political Methodology and an elected fellow of the society. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan.

Gousha, an award-winning broadcast journalist, is the Law School’s distinguished fellow in law and public policy. His “On the Issues” series of conversations with newsmakers supports Marquette Law School’s commitment to serve as a modern-day public square for the City of Milwaukee, the state of Wisconsin and beyond.

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About Kevin Conway

Kevin is the associate director for university communication in the Office of University Relations. Contact Kevin at (414) 288-4745 or kevin.m.conway@marquette.edu.