The majority of Americans say they believe Supreme Court justices should serve fixed terms instead of getting lifetime appointments, according to a new American Barometer survey.
The poll, conducted by Hill.TV and the HarrisX polling company found that 53 percent of respondents said they believed justices should only serve for a fixed term, while 28 percent said they believed the justices should continue to be appointed for life.
Nineteen percent said they were unsure or did not know.
The poll also showed little partisan divide on the issue, with 61 percent of Democrats saying justices should serve for fixed terms, while 49 percent of Republicans said the same.
Forty-nine percent of independent respondents also said justices should serve for fixed terms.
Director of the Monmouth University poll, Patrick Murphy, said the American Barometer survey’s findings match up with results in other surveys.
“The 28 percent who like the idea of lifetime appointments is pretty consistent with what we’ve been seeing across the past,” Murphy told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.”
The survey comes as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation process has been upended by three sexual misconduct allegations.
Kavanaugh and one of his accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, are testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Kavanaugh has fiercely denied all three allegations.
The American Barometer survey was conducted on September 21-22 among 1,000 registered voters. The sampling margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
— Julia Manchester
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