Rasmussen: Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling Approved by Most Voters

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 65% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of the court’s ruling in the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case,

including 49% who Strongly Approve. Twenty-eight percent (28%) disapprove of the Supreme Court’s decision, including 16% who Strongly Disapprove.

“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote last month in the majority opinion as the court ruled that affirmative action programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina were in violation of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment and federal civil rights law.

Perhaps surprisingly, there is little difference between whites and black voters about the success of affirmative action. Twenty-two percent (22%) of both groups say affirmative action programs have been successful, as do 18% of other minorities. Twenty-five percent (25%) of whites, 22% of black voters and 31% of other minorities believe affirmative action programs have been a failure. Black voters (52%) are less likely than whites (65%) or other minorities (72%) to approve of the Supreme Court’s decision striking down university affirmative action programs.

President Joe Biden’s strongest supporters are also most in favor of affirmative action. Among voters who Strongly Approve of Biden’s job performance as president, 48% consider affirmative action programs a success and 54% disapprove of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling against such programs. By contrast, among those who Strongly Disapprove of Biden’s performance, just seven percent (7%) think affirmative action programs are a success and 79% Strongly Approve of the Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.

Eighty-one percent (81%) of Republicans, 52% of Democrats and 64% of voters unaffiliated with either major party at least somewhat approve of the decision.

Only 21% of voters believe affirmative action programs have been a success. Twenty-six percent (26%) think affirmative action has been a failure and 45% say it’s been somewhere in between. These findings have changed only slightly since 2018.

Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Democrats, 13% of Republicans and 11% of unaffiliated voters believe affirmative action programs have been a success. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Republicans, 14% of Democrats and 30% of unaffiliated voters think affirmative action has been a failure.

There is not a dramatic “gender gap” in reaction to the recent Supreme Court ruling, with 68% of men and 62% of women voters approving of the decision.

Majorities in every age category at least somewhat approve of the Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action in university admissions.

Eighty-six percent (86%) of self-identified conservative voters approve of the recent Supreme Court ruling, as do 60% of moderates. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of liberals disapprove of the court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.

Breaking down the electorate by income categories, those in the highest bracket – earning more than $200,000 a year – are significantly more likely to believe affirmative action programs have been a success, compared to those with lower incomes.

For those who haven’t focused on the income category breakdown of recent surveys, almost all of them show that the wealthy are markedly more liberal than the sample at large and the higher the income bracket the further to the Left they skew. So much for the idea the rich are Republicans or conservatives.

• Groff v. DeJoy

• Supreme Court

• Affirmative Action overturned

• Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard

• religious freedom

• Justice Clarence Thomas

• religious accomodation in the workplace

• Trans World Airlines v. Hardison

• Justice Samuel Alito

• Hardison Standard

• Title VII

• John Kluge

• Harvard University

• University of North Carolina

• Fourteenth Amendment

• Equal protection of the law