Take this one, for example.

Fewer See Balance in Court's Decisions

Sounds bad, until you read the actual story.

About half of the public thinks the Supreme Court is generally balanced in its decisions, but a growing number of Americans say the court has become "too conservative" in the two years since President Bush began nominating justices, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Nearly a third of the public -- 31 percent -- thinks the court is too far to the right, a noticeable jump since the question was last asked in July 2005. That's when Bush nominated John G. Roberts Jr. to the court and, in the six-month period that followed, the Senate approved Roberts as chief justice and confirmed Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.

In other words, 7 in 10 Americans believe the Supreme Court is either in balance or too liberal -- but that isn't what the media wants to focus on. Instead, they focus on the Americans of a liberal bent -- and even then can find less than 1/3 of the public who find the High Court to be too conservative. Indeed, with roughly half the public finding the court to be just about right, it strikes me that we need to ensure that the Court does more of what it has done this term.

And while the story notes that the public disagrees with the school desegregation decision handed down at the end of the term, I'm not surprised. After all, the media generally presented the story as a setback for civil rights rather than the step forward towards non-discrimination that it really was. The majority explicitly upheld Brown v. Board of Education's central holding -- that assigning students to school based upon their race is a violation of the Constitution. Given teh misreporting of the story by the press, it is no wonder that the American public is misinformed about that decision -- and I firmly believe that the public would agree with the holding if they wee presented with the truth.

Posted by: Greg at 11:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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