Sotomayor, the Preferential Treatment Issue, and Public Opinion

June 2, 2009 5:46 PM | | Comments (0)

One of the issues sure to come up during the confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was her involvement in a ruling that rejected reverse discrimination claims by white firefighters in Connecticut. The firefighters said the city of New Haven violated their rights by throwing out the results of an officers' promotion exam where minorities had received disproportionately low scores. It's a case that will ultimately come before the Supreme Court.

How does the public feel nowadays about affirmative action issues?

A Pew Research Center survey, conducted March 31 - April 21, said only 31 percent of people it surveyed believed "we should make every effort to improve the position of blacks and minorities, even if it means giving them preferential treatment." Sixty-five percent disagreed.

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There were sharp racial divisions on the question with three-quarters of whites opposing preferential treatment and blacks favoring it by 58 percent to 36 percent. Among just self-described Democrats, whites opposed preferential treatment by 66 percent to 31 percent while blacks favored it by 60 percent to 34 percent.

While Pew's latest polling showed that the public did not support preferential treatment as a way to help minorities, past surveys, such as one in 2007, did find that the public supported affirmative action programs in general by 70 percent to 25 percent.

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Categories: Pew Research Center

Tags: Race, Sotomayor

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