By a margin of 56 percent to 38 percent, American voters favor a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, according to a
new Quinnipiac University National Poll.
The results come as the country awaits the Supreme Court’s decision on the controversial issue, which is expected sometime this month. The Court’s ruling will address "the power of the states to ban same-sex marriages and to refuse to recognize such marriages performed in another state," a January posting on the Supreme Court’s official blog said.
Political party affiliation greatly influences voters' opinions, according to Quinnipiac, which found that Democrats favor same-sex by a margin of 70 percent to 24 percent and independents by 61 percent to 34 percent. Republicans oppose same-sex marriage 62 percent to 34 percent.
Slightly more women than men support gay marriage (men 55 percent to 41 percent; women 57 percent to 35 percent).
GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Sunday on NBC’s "Meet the Press" that he’d fight the high court’s decision if it legalizes same-sex marriage.
"Roe versus Wade was decided 30 some years ago, and I continue to fight that, because I think the court got it wrong," he said. "And I think if the court decides this case in error, I will continue to fight, as we have on the issue of life ... We're not bound by what nine people say in perpetuity."
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While the Supreme Court’s "word has validity," the role of Congress and the president, Santorum continued, is to "push back" when the high court makes a wrong decision.
"I think it's important to understand that the Supreme Court doesn't have the final word. It has its word," he said.
By a margin of 53 percent to 40 percent, voters oppose allowing individual states to prohibit same-sex marriage, according to the Quinnipiac results, and 57 percent to 36 percent support requiring states to legally recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other states.
"Democrats, independent voters, men and women back same-sex marriage in these questions, with Republicans opposed," according to the poll.
Overall, the survey found, voters support same-sex marriage by a margin of 56 percent to 38 percent.
The poll also measured voters' feelings about the death penalty and President Barack Obama.
Support for the death penalty is dying, according to the survey results.
Forty-eight percent of American voters support life without parole for convicted murderers, while 43 percent support the death penalty. Those figures change when a person is convicted of murder during a terrorist act.
In that case, 58 percent of American voters say a person convicted of terrorist-related murder deserves the death penalty, compared with 36 percent who support life without parole.
In the case of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 62 percent of voters supported death with 34 percent favoring life without parole.
"American voters may be moving away from the death penalty, but in general, there is absolutely no ambivalence" about executing Tsarnaev, said the poll’s assistant director, Tim Malloy.
Obama’s disapproval ratings have risen slightly since an April 27 Quinnipiac survey, according to the poll results, which found American voters disapprove of the job he’s doing by 50 percent to 43 percent. In the earlier poll, 49 percent of voters disapproved of the president’s job performance.
Voters continue to disapprove of Congress. Republicans fared worse than Democrats, with the Democrats receiving a disapproval rating of 61 percent to 30 percent, and their GOP counterparts getting a 73 percent to 17 percent score.
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