Page 29 - UCP_Template01_Sample

26 notes
1 same- sex marriage in a televised interview with ABC News, available at http://
2 abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript- robin- roberts- abc- news- interview- president-
3 obama/story?id=16316043#.UbHuFcqwV8E.
4 10. Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 704 F. Supp. 2d 921 (N.D. Cal. 2010).
5 11. Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992).
6 12. I use the term “wildcat litigation” to evoke the concept of a wildcat
7 strike— a labor action that is initiated by rank- and- file workers without the sup-
port of national union leaders. Scholars of social movement litigation have long
8 noted the phenomenon (e.g., Wasby 1984, 112– 15) but have not, to my knowledge,
9 given it a name or adequately explored its implications for constitutional politics.
10 13. In April 1989, for example, with Webster v. Reproductive Health Services
11 (1989) pending at SCOTUS, CBS/NYT asked: “If the Supreme Court changes
12 its view of the law so each state could make its own decision on abortion, would
13 you want your state to permit abortions under all circumstances, or to only allow
14 abortion in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother, or to outlaw all
15 abortions?”; 53 percent of respondents chose either the second or third options.
16 In the same survey, however, just 48 percent of respondents gave similar answers
17 to a question that did not mention the Supreme Court, and one month earlier,
18 AP/Medial General had reported that just 44 percent of respondents favored
19 a “Constitutional Amendment that would make abortions illegal nationwide,
except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.” Perhaps the clear-
20 est example of question- wording effects on this issue comes from an October 1996
21 CBS/NYT poll. Dividing their sample in half, the pollsters asked two slightly dif-
22 ferent questions:
23 Which of these comes closest to your view: 1. Abortion should
24 be generally available to those who want it. 2. Abortion should
25 be available but under stricter limits than it is now. 3. Abortion
26 should be against the law except in cases of rape, incest, and to
27 save the woman’s life. 4. Abortion should not be permitted at all?
28 What is your personal feeling about abortion: 1. It should be per-
29 mitted in all cases. 2. It should be permitted, but subject to greater
30 restrictions than it is now. 3. It should be permitted in cases such
31 as rape, incest, and to save the woman’s life. 4. It should only be
32 permitted to save the woman’s life?
33 In response to the first question, 40 percent of respondents indicated support
34 for option 3 or 4; in response to the second, 61 percent of respondents indicated
35 support for option 3 or 4 or volunteered that abortion should not be permitted at
36 all. CBS asked this latter question fourteen times from 1996 to 2011 and reported
37 results at or above 50 percent on thirteen of those occasions. But NBC/WSJ asked
38 a similar question (with slightly different wording) fifteen times from 1991 to 2009
39 and never reported majority support.

UCP_Fischel_FM.indd 26 Achorn International 05/21/2009 02:08PM UCP_Fischel_FM.indd 27 Achorn International 05/21/2009 02:08PM