Comparing Warren v. Rehnquist Court Activism

[DAVID E. BERNSTEIN]

I don't exactly these, but a quick Westlaw search revealed the following
info from the May 1, 2000:

   An April ABC News poll found that 56 percent wanted a smaller
government with fewer services; and 38 percent, a larger one with
many services. In a 1996 ABC News/Washington Post poll, those
responses were 63 and 32 percent, respectively.

  In an early April Gallup poll, 45 percent thought that the "the
federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an
immediate threat to the right and freedoms of ordinary citizens," but 51
percent didn't think so.

I also recall reading in the Economist that Americans are the only
"western" electorate to believe that it is not government's role to
redistribute wealth, and this was by a large margin (in the UK, for
example, the numbers are reversed).

These are hardly signs of an electorate that is likely to be especially
upset by the (so far) minor chipping away of the federal government's
power.

As an aside, Howard is correct that the individual laws struck down have
been generally popular, but they have also largely been things that
could be, and usually are, accomplished by the states.



Bill Funk wrote:
I would be interested in being pointed to the polls that show these
tendencies.  My sense of the polls I have seen is that "Americans" or
"the
public" respond by wanting more of some government and less of other
government, and with the responses being highly influenced by the form
of
the question.

Bill Funk
Lewis & Clark Law School

David E. Bernstein
Associate Professor
George Mason University
School of Law
3401 N. Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 993-8089
dbernste at wpgate.gmu.edu
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