Poll: Most want Sotomayor confirmed

WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. public, by a slim margin, would like the Senate to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as the next U.S. Supreme Court justice, results of a CNN poll indicate.

Forty-seven percent of people surveyed said they favored Sotomayor's confirmation, while 40 percent said they opposed it and 13 percent said they were unsure, the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Friday indicated.

Sotomayor's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee begin Monday.

Poll results demonstrated a partisan divide, with nearly seven in 10 Democrats saying they support Sotomayor's confirmation and nearly two of three Republicans indicating they opposed her confirmation. Independents were split.

"Republican opposition to Sotomayor's confirmation is a higher level of opposition from the party out of power than any Supreme Court nominee has faced in the past two decades," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

Pollsters said participants seemed braced for a partisan battle when the hearings begin. Six of 10 respondents said a major fight between Democrats and Republicans would erupt, while 38 percent said they thought the hearings will be calm.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll surveyed 1,026 adults by phone June 26-28. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.