How Your Views Compare With the Court

[LightFang]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/07/25/us/scotus-quiz.html?hp

It's just a neat quiz. You get six questions, and you can see where you scored, how the US public feels, and how the court feels.

In the end my views fell with the center of the court. John Paul Stevens agreed with me on 4/6, Anthony M. Kennedy for 5, and Clarence Thomas for just 2.

Here were my responses:

Q1: Agree, individuals have the right to have a registered handgun in their home.
Q2: Favor a ban on late-term abortions.
Q3: Disagree, corporations shouldn't be able to buy ads on TV.
Q4: Yes, noncitizens suspected of terrorism should be tried in a U.S. civilian court system.
Q5: No, the government should not be allowed to give the death sentence to a person who raped a child.
Q6: No, a state should not be able to sentence to life a person under 18 for armed burglary.

 

[Arwon]

Wait why is having a registered gun at home "conservative"?

American politics is stupid.

 

[Millman]

Someone with a dual citizenship might only have a 25% answer give or take.

 

[Tee Kay]

What LightFang said.

 

[Yared]

Where you fall

In these six cases, your opinions were most closely aligned with the center of the court.
Justice John Paul Stevens

Generally votes with the liberal half of the court.
Agreed with you in 4 of 6 cases.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy

The court’s swing voter.
Agreed with you in 5 of 6 cases.
Justice Clarence Thomas

Generally votes with the conservative half of the court.
Agreed with you in 2 of 6 cases.

Hmmm.

 

[Samson]

Wait why is having a registered gun at home "conservative"?

American politics is stupid.

This. And how is it liberal to restrict the ability of "corporations should [to be] able to spend their profits on TV ads urging voters to vote for or against candidates in a coming election".

Has liberal and conservative just come to mean Democrat and Republican, or is there some consistant definition involving freedom, opposition to change and ecconomic left - right position that I just do not understand.

 

[really]

I'm a librul

Justice John Paul Stevens
Generally votes with the liberal half of the court.
Agreed with you in 5 of 6 cases.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
The court’s swing voter.
Agreed with you in 4 of 6 cases.

Justice Clarence Thomas
Generally votes with the conservative half of the court.
Agreed with you in 1 of 6 cases.

 

[dwaxe]

The sense of 'liberal' that this test is using is the one equivalent to 'democrat', and the sense of 'conservative' is equivalent to 'republican'. This is because the author of the quiz conflates the definitions as such.

 

[amadeus]

Q1: Yes.
Q2: Oppose.
Q3: Agree.
Q4: Yes.
Q5: Yes.
Q6: Yes.

I agreed with the general public twice (Q1 and Q5) and the court three times (Q1, Q3, and Q4.) I agreed with Thomas on 4 of 6 cases, Kennedy on 3, and Stevens on 2.

 

[Frank Drebin]

pretty pointless. questions are very vague.

 

[azzaman333]

Where you fall

In these six cases, your opinions were most closely aligned with the center of the court.
Justice John Paul Stevens

Generally votes with the liberal half of the court.
Agreed with you in 4 of 6 cases.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy

The court’s swing voter.
Agreed with you in 5 of 6 cases.
Justice Clarence Thomas

Generally votes with the conservative half of the court.
Agreed with you in 2 of 6 cases.

 

[kulade]

Has liberal and conservative just come to mean Democrat and Republican, or is there some consistant definition involving freedom, opposition to change and ecconomic left - right position that I just do not understand.

I'm kinda surprised you're just recognizing this.

The quiz is obviously crap for the aforementioned reasons and it's filled with corny partisan grooming and falsely assumes that justices simply vote with their personal opinions rather with their interpretation of what is constitutional.

 

[dutchfire]

Well, it's a bit of a silly quiz, since the supreme court interprets the law/constitution while I give my own moral view. So where I don't agree with the court (for example gun rights), I just disagree with the American constitution and not with the court.

 

[Cutlass]

Has liberal and conservative just come to mean Democrat and Republican, or is there some consistant definition involving freedom, opposition to change and ecconomic left - right position that I just do not understand.

Of course. And it isn't even the least bit accurate. Most Democrats or "liberals" are not particularly opposed to gun ownership, for example. And few Democrats are actually liberals.

Liberal and conservative in the current American political definitions have nothing to do with freedom, economics, opposition to change, or pretty much anything else.


On the test I'm about where you would expect me to be.

 

[Syterion]

I don't understand how restricting political spending by corporations limits political speech. All it does is give preferential voice to those with money and power.

Also, the SC is against late term abortions EVEN when the mother's health is at risk? That's ridiculous.

 

[amadeus]

Also, the SC is against late term abortions EVEN when the mother's health is at risk? That's ridiculous.

That certainly helped push me over the edge on that one. The government is going to kill me in order to save a fetus?

 

[Yared]

That certainly helped push me over the edge on that one. The government is going to kill me in order to save a fetus?

But no no, it's a life, Amadeus!

It's pretty unbelievable.

 

[Samson]

That certainly helped push me over the edge on that one. The government is going to kill me in order to save a fetus?

Thing is, it is pretty rare for the fetus to survive if the mother does not.

 

[Zack]

I can't believe 67% of people who took the test would want to kill someone for rape.

 

[Mathilda]

In the abortion question the question and answer didn't match.
Question: "Would you favor or oppose a ban in your state on abortions performed late in the term of a pregnancy, also called partial-birth abortions? "

Answer " Congress can prohibit doctors from performing the procedure opponents call partial-birth abortion, even when the pregnant woman’s health is at risk.

—Gonzales v. Carhart (2007)"

If your answer includes "even when the pregnant woman’s health is at risk", so should the question.