Poll: Majority Say Election Victor Should Name SCOTUS Nominee

A majority of likely voters believe the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the U.S. Supreme Court should be filled by a nominee coming after the election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, according to a new poll.

Fifty-six percent say the winner on Nov. 3 should fill the vacancy, while just 41% say Trump should pick someone quickly, according to a poll of 950 likely voters by The New York Times and Siena College. The poll’s margin of error was 3.5%.

The poll was conducted between Sept. 22 and Sept. 24, before Trump’s nomination on Saturday of Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

The poll showed Trump’s pick of Barrett, backed by social conservatives who seek to overturn or limit abortion rights guaranteed by the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, may be at odds with public opinion.

Those who support abortion rights outnumbered those calling for restrictions or criminalizing abortion by a nearly 30-point margin, the poll showed. Sixty percent of the poll’s respondents said abortion should be legal all or some of the time. Only 14% said abortion should always be illegal; 19% said it should be “mostly illegal.”

Poll respondents gave an 8-point edge to Biden, 49% to 41%, as their presidential pick. Polls remain tight between the Democratic nominee and Republican incumbent in a host of battleground states, including states Trump carried in 2016. But Trump’s win over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes but lost the Electoral College battle 304-227, came despite Clinton consistently leading in national polls running up to the 2016 election.

The Times/Siena College poll showed it’s not only Democrats with concerns about Trump’s and Republicans' push to overturn the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s signature bill that expanded health care and guaranteed insurance coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions. Fifty-seven percent of respondents support the law, known as “Obamacare,” while just 38% oppose it, according to the poll.

After Trump’s announcement Saturday, members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation said they fear a confirmation of Barrett places the Affordable Care Act in jeopardy at a time when the nation faces the COVID-19 pandemic. The Supreme Court, with a conservative 5-4 majority, has upheld key provisions in the Affordable Care Act, but the Trump administration has still been pushing to overturn it.

“Amy Coney Barrett will work to gut Roe v. Wade and the ACA, taking away health care coverage from millions of Americans -- including those with pre-existing conditions," Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted. "And make no mistake: Trump is counting on her to swing the Supreme Court in his favor when he loses this election.”

Trump on Sunday morning tweeted that “Obamacare will be replaced with a MUCH better, and FAR cheaper, alternative if it is terminated in the Supreme Court. Would be a big WIN for the USA!”

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