Should Obama Be Able to Override Judges? Voters Have a Surprising Answer You Definitely Didn't Learn in Government Class

Basic U.S. government classes and "Schoolhouse Rock" may stress the importance of checks and balances, but for a huge chunk of Americans, checks and balances don't mean much.

For those Americans, it's imperative that President Barack Obama be able to override the other branches of government.

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More than one-quarter of likely U.S. voters think President Obama should ignore federal court rulings "if they are standing in the way of actions he feels are important for the country," according to Rasmussen Reports polling data released Friday.

An even bigger segment of Americans polled — 31 percent — said they believe Obama should take action overriding Congress on "important" issues and that it's more important that American government operate "efficiently" than it is to preserve America's checks and balances.

There was a distinct partisan split among the 800 likely voters polled.

On the issue of Obama ignoring court orders, 81 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of unaffiliated voters said the president should not be able to disregard inconvenient court cases, but among Democrats, 43 percent said Obama should be able to brush aside judges' decisions that don't go his way.

The polling comes as several of Obama's hallmark achievements — including a federal judge blocking Obama's executive immigration action that would halt millions of deportations and a pending Supreme Court case against Obamacare — are coming under judicial scrutiny.

Other findings: Women, young voters and black voters were more likely to say that Obama should be able to ignore court decisions, while voters over 40 and men were more likely to disagree.

See the full poll results here and read the questions asked in the poll here.

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