Same-Sex Marriage: Who Decides -- Calif. voters have, by initiati ve

[Volokh, Eugene]

	I took a quick look at what seems like the Mar. 4-7, 2004 ABC
News/Washington Post survey -- see
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/vault/stories/data03
0804.htm -- and the question it seemed to ask was whether there should
be a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, not whether
same-sex marriage should be legal.  

	Unfortunately, the page doesn't break things down by age, so I
can't be positive that this is the right survey.  Am I missing something
here?  

	The most recent poll that I could quickly find that gives the
question text and breaks down the split, a MSNBC/Newsweek Jan. 2-18,
2004 poll that asked "Should same-sex marriages be legal, or not?" of
"National registered voters age 18-29" gave results of 50-47 in favor,
but with a 5% margin of error (since there were 350 participants).  See
NEWS;RPOLL in LEXIS.

	I tentatively support legalization of same-sex marriage; but I
don't think there's reason for a premature sense of triumph on the
subject -- the matter is still quite controversial, seemingly among
18-to-29-year-olds as well as among older voters, though I'm obviously
quite ready to be persuaded otherwise if there's solid polling data to
the contrary.

	Eugene

> -----Original Message-----
> From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu 
> [mailto:conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Jason Mazzone
> Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 9:41 AM
> To: JMHACLJ at aol.com
> Cc: conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
> Subject: Re: Same-Sex Marriage: Who Decides -- Calif. voters 
> have, by initiati ve
> 
> 
> There are, at least, various polls showing unusually strong 
> support for marriage among young people today. E.g. ABC 
> News/Washington Post national survey on March 7, 2004, 63 
> percent of respondents 18 to 29 say gay marriage should be 
> legal. I don't know if 35 years ago anybody asked 18-29 year 
> olds the same question.
> 
> Jason Mazzone
> Assistant Professor of Law
> Brooklyn Law School
> 250 Joralemon Street
> Brooklyn, NY 11201
> (718) 780-7514 (voice)
> (718) 780-0394 (fax)
> 
> 
> >
> > Is there empirical evidence to support this claim? From time to time
> when the media  reports such things I had formed
> > a
> > vague impression that today's young people  were more restrained in 
> > their expressed views about a broad variety of subjects,  
> especially 
> > in comparison with their parents' generations.
> >
> > Jim Henderson
> > Senior Counsel
> > ACLJ
> 
> _______________________________________________
> To post, send message to Conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, 
> see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/conlawprof
> 
> Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be 
> viewed as private.  Anyone can subscribe to the list and read 
> messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; 
> and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the 
> messages to others.
>