Two polls released in the past two days find a plurality of Americans approve of the selection of Sonia Sotomayor to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court. A plurality of Republicans, however, disapprove of the president's choice.

In the Quinnipiac survey released this morning, 54 percent said they approve of Sotomayor, while 24 percent disapprove and 22 percent are undecided. The poll was taken of 1,438 registered voters nationwide from May 26-28, with a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points.

Worded slightly different and based on just one night of polling (Tuesday, when the announcement was made), Gallup found that 47 percent think Sotomayor was either a good or excellent choice. This survey was based on interviews with 1,015 adults with +/- 3 percentage-point margin of error.

Most important, Gallup respondents said, to President Obama was Sotomayor's 17 years on the federal bench (61 percent), followed closely by her intellect (59 percent). Two-thirds also said that being a woman and Hispanic were at least somewhat important considerations in Obama's choice.

The Quinnipiac poll found that 70 percent believe the fact that Sotomayor could become the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice was at least somewhat important to Obama's decision making process.

That survey also found voters to be split on what U.S. senators should consider when deciding whether to support her nomination: 47 percent said senators should only look at whether she is qualified to serve, while 43 percent said her views on controversial issues like abortion and affirmative action should be considered. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans said her views on those issues should count, 56 percent of Democrats said only qualifications should matter, and independents were split, favoring qualifications by 2 points.

(Cross-posted on RCP's Politics Nation)