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Thursday 28th May 2009 | 10:00

Americans approve of Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee

Overwhelming majority say Sotomayor will be confirmed

Conservatives say that she is too liberal, and liberals say that she is too moderate, but for a majority of Americans, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, is the right choice.  

According to a new PoliticsHome poll, 51% of Americans feel that the president made the right choice when he selected Sotomayor to fill Justice Souter’s seat on the Supreme Court.

The nomination reveals the expected gap between the parties on the nomination, with 72% of Republicans saying that she is the wrong choice, and 86% of Democrats saying she is the right choice. 

Independents split, but break with the Democrats on this topic, with 47% agreeing that she was the right choice and 32% calling her the wrong choice.

One thing Americans across the political spectrum can agree on is that Sonia Sotomayor is headed for a confirmation by the Senate.

Overall, 85% of Americans expect her to be confirmed.  Many panelists see the Democrats as unstoppable on this front, due to their numbers and the political risks associated with opposing a nominee who is a Hispanic woman. 

Americans see race as a factor in Sotomayor’s selection

An overwhelming 93% of Americans believe that Judge Sotomayor’s selection had an ethnic dimension. However, while most agree that her being a Hispanic woman played a role, there is disagreement on how great a factor it was.

23% of respondents believe her race was “the main factor”, compared to 2% who believe “it wasn’t really a factor”, and 3% who “think she was chosen purely on merit”.

A larger number of panelists (30%) think it was “an important factor”, while 40% of respondents - the largest group - believe that while it played a role, it was not the most important factor in her selection.

Respondents were divided on whether the racial aspect illustrated the president’s desire to have the Supreme Court reflect America’s diversity, whether it was a result of political considerations, or both.

As one respondent said, “President Obama has now consolidated his Hispanic support ahead of the 2010 and 2012 elections. The GOP, which is struggling with Hispanics anyway, will definitely not see their support return if they attack Sotomayor too viciously.”

Another added, the president “seems to be committed to trying to make the upper echelon of our government as representative of the diversity of our country as possible.”

"I think the qualifications alone were enough to do it, but the identiy aspects were handy positives," said another.

 PoliticsHome interviewed 1,664 Americans from the PoliticsHome OpinionAmerica panel by e-mail from 27 May to 28 May. Results are weighted to represent the United States politically.