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json.loads() accepts strings but errors on bytes objects. Documentation and API indicate that both should work. Review of json/__init__.py code shows that the loads() function's 'encoding' arg is ignored and no decoding takes place before the object is passed to JSONDecoder.decode()
Tested on Python 3.1.2 and Python 3.2rc1; fails on both. 
Example:
#################################################
#!/usr/local/bin/python3.2
import json
print(json.loads('123'))
# 123
print(json.loads(b'123'))
# /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.1/lib/python3.1/json/decoder.py:325: 
# TypeError: can't use a string pattern on a bytes-like object
print(json.loads(b'123', encoding='utf-8'))
# /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.1/lib/python3.1/json/decoder.py:325: 
# TypeError: can't use a string pattern on a bytes-like object
#################################################
Patch attached.