Support for Sonia Sotomayor’s Confirmation Rises After Senate Hearings

PALO ALTO, Calif., July 24, 2009:

The percentage of Americans favoring Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation as a Supreme Court Justice rose by 6% following her confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate. For several weeks before this July 19-21, 2009 YouGov PollingPoint poll, support for her confirmation had remained steady around 40%. The rise was greatest among Democrats, who jumped from 68% to 76% favoring confirmation, but Republicans also registered a 3% increase to 20%.

51% of those polled said that they had watched at least some of the Senate confirmation hearings. Of those, 66% thought Judge Sotomayor was treated fairly by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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President Obama’s approval rating was 54% in the July 19-21 poll, recovering from a low of 51% in the two weeks before.

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Methodology:

These results are from a weekly YouGov PollingPoint public opinion tracking poll conducted for publication in The Economist. The poll surveyed 1,000 respondents and was fielded from July 19-21, 2009. Results from interviews conducted online by members of the PollingPoint panel are representative of the U.S. adult population. The margin of error for this poll is +/- 4.8%.