Sotomayor's Views

Senate hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor begin today, and Americans’ initial impressions of her are positive. Fifty-four percent of respondents in a May Gallup poll say that they would like to see the Senate confirm her. Around three in ten individuals polled in May and June by Quinnipiac University say that Sotomayor is more liberal than they would like, while 5 percent of respondents say she is not liberal enough, and slightly more than four in ten respondents report that she is “about right.” When asked by Gallup/USA Today in late May about her views on important issues, 49 percent of respondents believe that Sotomayor’s views are mainstream, and 30 percent say that they are too extreme. Two in ten respondents do not have an opinion.

Source: Gallup/USA Today, May 2009.