Poll: Americans closely divided on who should pick new justice

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A CBS poll found Americans are closely divided on who should appoint the new U.S. Supreme Court justice after the death of Antonin Scalia.

The poll found 47 percent of those polled would like President Barack Obama to appoint the new justice before the election in November, while 46 percent would prefer the new justice be appointed by the next president. Pollsters also found 82 percent of Republicans would like the next president to appoint the replacement, while 77 percent of Democrats want Obama to make the appointment.

Approval of the high court's performance has also seen an uptick since the poll began in 2012 with 49 percent approval to 37 percent disapproval, the poll found

The poll also found Americans continue to be divided on how Obama is doing in office: 47 percent (including 84 percent of Democrats) approve, while 45 percent (including 86 percent of Republicans) disapprove.

The percentage of Americans who approve of how he is handling the economy (47 percent) remains unchanged from last month. His foreign policy approval rating is the highest its been in nearly a year (40 percent), although Americans still disapprove of his work (49 percent).

At a rate of 2 to 1, Americans say the country is on the wrong track (62 percent) rather than headed in the right direction (31 percent).

The telephone poll took place Feb. 12-16 from a random sample of 2,007 adults nationwide and has a sampling error of two percentage points. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.