Few Americans think the Supreme Court's ruling last week will end the fight over gay marriage, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds -- but even those who oppose its legalization are deeply divided on how fervently politicians should continue to push the issue.
In the survey, Americans approve of the court's decision by an 8-point margin. Some 74 percent of those who support the court's decision and 80 percent who oppose it say the argument is likely to continue.
And while 45 percent of Americans who oppose the ruling say politicians who share their views should concentrate on finding ways to continue to fight against gay marriage, 44 percent say politicians should express their disapproval, but then move on to other issues.
On the national stage, Republican politicians still largely oppose gay marriage, but they've shown varying levels of interest in furthering that debate. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee vowed he would "not acquiesce to an imperial court," while Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker expressed support for the idea of a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision.
Other responses were considerably more muted. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush expressed disappointment in the decision, but added in a statement that "I also believe that we should love our neighbor and respect others, including those making lifetime commitments." Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) also decried the ruling but said he would respect it, concluding that the "quickly changing tide of public opinion on this issue" means attempting to amend the Constitution is a "divisive effort that would be doomed to fail."
Rank-and-file opponents of gay marriage are also well aware of that changing tide. Nearly three-quarters of those who disapprove of the gay marriage decision say the country has become more socially liberal in recent years, considerably higher than the percentage of gay marriage supporters saying the same.
The appetite for keeping the issue of gay marriage front and center lies mostly among evangelical Christians. A 54 percent majority of born-again opponents of gay marriage said the fight should continue, while 50 percent of non-evangelicals who oppose the court's decision still thought it was about time to move on.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted June 26-28 among U.S. adults using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here. More details on the poll's methodology are available here.
Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some, but not all, potential survey errors. YouGov's reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample, rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. Click here for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error.
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