US voters believe winner of election should fill court vacancy, shows poll

 

Biden retains a clear lead over Trump, 49 to 41% in presidential race, says poll.

A clear majority of voters believes the winner of the US presidential election should fill the Supreme Court seat left open by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, according to a national poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College, a sign of the political peril President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans are courting by attempting to rush through an appointment before the end of the campaign.

In a survey of likely voters taken in the week leading up to Trump’s nomination on Saturday of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the high court, 56 per cent said they preferred to have the election act as a sort of referendum on the vacancy. Only 41 per cent said they wanted Trump to choose a justice before November. More striking, the voters Trump and endangered Senate Republicans must reclaim to close the gap in the polls are even more opposed to a hasty pick: 62 per cent of women, 63 per cent of independents and 60 per cent of college-educated white voters said they wanted the winner of the campaign to fill the seat.

The warning signs for Republicans are also stark on the issue of abortion, on which Judge Barrett, a fiercely conservative jurist, could offer a pivotal vote should she be confirmed: 60 per cent of those surveyed believe abortion should be legal all or some of the time. The poll suggests that Donald Trump would reap little political benefit from a clash over abortion rights: 56 percent said they would be less likely to vote for Trump if his justice would help overturn Roe v. Wade, while just 24 per cent said they would be more inclined to vote for him.

Beyond the coming battle over the court, the survey indicates that Trump remains an unpopular president.