UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As the midterm elections approach, new data from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy’s Mood of the Nation poll finds broad bipartisan support for a president's duty to uphold the laws set forth in the U.S. Constitution.
The results of the poll — conducted from May 19-26 through YouGov, a company that runs public opinion research — found that 70% of American adults believe that presidents are bound by the Constitution to enforce all laws, even if they question the constitutionality of those laws. A further 78% of respondents said that the president should file lawsuits if they think a law is unconstitutional but still enforce it while the courts are deciding the question. The poll has a margin of error of ± 3.8% from a sample of 1,000 American adults.
Eric Plutzer, Liberal Arts Professor of Political Science at Penn State and director of the Mood of the Nation Poll, said the findings show that partisan polarization does not apply to presidential duties as outlined in the Constitution.
“The key takeaway from these results is that a majority of Americans expect their presidents, current and future, to faithfully enforce the laws they inherit when they take the oath of office,” Plutzer said. “Citizens of both parties share a consensus view on the president’s role."
The survey first provided respondents with the wording of the constitutional clause that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” and asked what they thought the phrase should mean for current and future presidents.
About 70%, including majorities of Republicans and Democrats, said that “All presidents have a duty to enforce all the laws, with no exceptions.” Another 23% said that the clause meant that “All presidents have a duty to enforce all the laws, except those they believe are unconstitutional.”
Only 7% of respondents said that the Constitution provided more flexibility, saying that it meant “All presidents have a duty to only enforce laws that fulfill their campaign promises, but they do not have to enforce laws that they promised to change.”
The poll then asked what a president who believes a law is unconstitutional should do. About 78% of respondents, including large majorities of Republicans and Democrats, said the president should “file a lawsuit asking a federal court to declare the law unconstitutional and enforce the law while waiting for the courts to decide.” Another 17% said presidents can potentially ignore an unconstitutional law while waiting for the judicial process to play out.
The full Mood of the Nation poll report is available on the McCourtney Institute for Democracy website.
Mood of the Nation polls are cross-sectional polls of approximately 1,000 U.S. adults, matched to a sampling frame on gender, age, race and education based on the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey. YouGov, the organization that administers the poll, screens the data to exclude those completing the survey rapidly without considering the questions and multiple completions from the same IP address.