CNN Poll: half of Americans think Constitution requires marriage equality

Timothy Kincaid

August 11th, 2010

Anti-gays like the National Organization for Marriage like to claim that Judge Walker thwarted the will of the vast majority of Americans by finding Proposition 8 to be in violation of the Constitution. Not so, according to a new poll from CNN:

37. Do you think gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to get married and have their marriage
recognized by law as valid?

Yes 49%
No 51%

37A. Do you think gays and lesbians should have a constitutional right to get married and have their
marriage recognized by law as valid?

Yes 52%
No 46%
No opinion 2%

Each question was asked of half their sample. The sampling error on these questions is +/- 4.5%

David

August 11th, 2010

Wonder what the results would have been if the question had been phrased without the hot button words – i.e.,

“Do you think you have a constitutional right to to get married and have your marriage recognized by law as valid? “

TampaZeke

August 11th, 2010

So where’s the Prop 8 ruling backlash that their side, and Chicken Littles on our side (like Rauch), predicted.

Ryan

August 11th, 2010

Interesting. I thought support for gay marriage was in the low 40’s. Is this an outlier, because of the wording, or because of Walker’s ruling? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Burr

August 11th, 2010

Large sampling error, so it’s in the right ball park..

Jim Burroway

August 11th, 2010

That was my thought. A large sampling error on such a tight response. Still, encouraging, but I wouldn’t base any electoral assumptions on it.

Riva

August 11th, 2010

That would be more reassuring if a large section of the populace did not also think the Constitution declares us a Christian Nation, could name any amendment other than the second (I only give partial credit for knowing the first includes religion and/speech if they don’t also know what else it includes), could name any or all of the Supreme Court Justices or could explain any Supreme Court decision and how it effects us.

cd

August 12th, 2010

Seems high to me. But it’s good news and the wide binge shows that opposition is getting increasingly hollow and insubstantial.

TiminBoulder

August 12th, 2010

Examine the full results for yourself.

When you realize that the only respondents to those two questions were in the South and aged 50+, the results are neither surprising nor horridly relevant.

Greg

August 14th, 2010

Riva, don’t fool yourself, they don’t know the 2nd Amendment–they only know a part of it. They keep forgetting, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State.” All they remember is the second part.

Nor do they realize that if it means the right of the people to protect themselves against the government, that that includes the personal right to nuclear weapons. Start asking people if everyone has the right to keep high explosives, grenades, and nuclear weapons, and things start turning around–because of course, that’s terra.

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