High court poll

The liberal elite continue to relive the 2000 election, but President Bush's two Supreme Court appointments represent the gut punch that keeps on slugging. Long after the Republican leaves the White House, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito will remain on the bench.

After the conservative justices voted with the majority of the court on two key 5-4 rulings this year -- upholding restrictions on partial-birth abortion and limiting the use of race in assigning students to public schools -- the progressives at The Washington Post uncurled themselves from the fetal position long enough to commission a public opinion poll.

Their mission: see if the liberal East Coast media's constant crying about the "conservative" court is shifting public opinion. Lo and behold, the poll found that about three in 10 Americans -- 31 percent -- agree with the gatekeepers at The Post. That's up from 19 percent two years ago, when Chief Justice Roberts was nominated.

Even though nearly half of the poll's respondents said the court is generally balanced in its decisions, and that 18 percent said the body is too liberal, the headline in Sunday's Post read: "Fewer see balance in court's decisions."

"Too conservative"? The decisions on partial-birth abortion and race-based admissions reflect opinions solidly in the mainstream. In fact, the only case in recent years to spawn widespread public outrage was the court's 5-4 ruling in Kelo v. New London, which gave local governments carte blanche to seize private property through eminent domain and transfer title to another private party. And who brought us that travesty? The court's liberal contingent, plus Justice Kennedy.

The sad truth is that most Americans couldn't name a single member of the court or a recent decision of note. Had The Post's pollster not provided several sentences of boilerplate on the race-based admissions and partial-birth abortion cases, precious few participants would have been able to provide the opinion the paper so desired.