Most Americans can't name one Supreme Court justice

[IScreamSundays]

Source: Yahoo

As Congress gears up to do battle over Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court, Americans are struggling to identify the names of her would-be colleagues, according to a new survey released by the legal information website Findlaw.com. Two-thirds of the 1,000 American adults polled couldn't name a single current justice, and just 1 percent were able to name all nine sitting justices. Many respondents believed that retired justices Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter continue to sit on the court.

The largest proportion of respondents were able to name Clarence Thomas, at 19 percent; Chief Justice John Roberts was next with 16 percent. Bringing up the rear were Anthony Kennedy — the pivotal swing vote in many high court decisions — with 6 percent, and Stephen Breyer, who rang a bell with just 3 percent of respondents, despite sitting on the court for 16 years now.

Findlaw columnist Michael C. Dorf, who once clerked on the high court, cautioned in FindLaw's news release that too much can be made of such low numbers, since the court usually acts "as a collective body" in altering the terms of legal and public debate. "After their 15 minutes before the Senate Judiciary Committee are up, Supreme Court justices rarely appear on television," he noted. "What is a source for concern are polls consistently showing that many Americans are unfamiliar with basic features of our constitutional system."

He has a point. A recent poll gauging U.S. knowledge of civics and Revolutionary-era history pointed up all sorts of sobering gaps. The American Revolution Center sponsored a national survey of 1,001 U.S. adults who took a multiple choice test. Before the test, 89 percent of respondents expressed confidence they could pass it; 83 percent went on to fail. Among the findings:

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Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100602/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2356

[hlthe2b]

1. If they had just said "scum" they would have named five of them

How sad is our educational system, our media and the apathy of our society....

[mikita]

17. COUP came to mind to me, but yours is good! n/t

[Retrograde]

38. RATS

Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Scalia - that's how I remember them. Then Kennedy, Sotomeyer, Ginsburg, Stephens and Breyer (from memory, so I may have misspelled some). I used to always forger Breyer, until Mr. Retrograde mentioned he met someone who used to date him way back when.

[MrSlayer]

2. Of course not.

Most Americans have their heads up their asses. Just as the masters want it.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

3. Very few of 'em are WORTH remembering.

:shrug:

[rurallib]

5. When history is written, this one will be special

right down with that Taney Court would be my guess.

[harkadog]

4. I would place a bet over half can't name the Vice President.

[rurallib]

7. or for that matter their governor, US rep or Senator BUT they can name

the winner on American Idol.
Priorities, people.

[BlueJazz]

6. What's a Supreme Court Justice ?? Is that like Diana Ross or something?

[KansDem]

8. Man! I knew it was bad...

...but I didn't think it was this bad! :wow:

[Solly Mack]

9. Damn

I went ahead and took the test.

30/30

[Sebastian Doyle]

10. Kind of ironic when you think about it.

Five Bush Crime Family nominated "justices" are responsible for 2 of the 3 worst Supreme Court decisions in history, and the idiots who cheer them on, don't even know their names.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

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[SDuderstadt]

23. Doyle Logic

Pointing out errors of fact is an "attack", but calling me a "Bush Crime Family Apologist" and claiming I "work for them" is not an attack.

I destest the Bushes, dude, but not nearly as much as I detest when people on our "side" can't get basic facts right. You need to get over your Bush derangement syndrome.

[Sebastian Doyle]

25. I got your "Bush Derangement Syndrome" right here.

Here's Prescott Bush, funder of Hitler's third reich, with his good buddy Dick Nixon,
whom Grandpa Prescott recruited to run for Congress (after he helped get some of
Prescott's German friends into the US after WWII)


Here's Grandpa Bush with his "golfing buddy" Ike Eisenhower. Guess who introduced Ike to his running mate.


When Dick came back to the White House in 68,
Poppy came over the bridge from Langley to be the man behind the curtain.

And of course you know what happened from 1980 on.....

[SDuderstadt]

26. Dude....

we've been through this before. Prescott Bush did not fund the Third Reich. There are plenty of things to excoriate the Bushes about without simply making shit up.

Keep your Bush Derangement Syndrome where we can see it.

[Sebastian Doyle]

28. The HELL he didn't.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar

[SDuderstadt]

30. Dude...

it's the Guardian. Enough said. You need to look up the logical fallacy known as "false certainty".

Both Joe Consason and Herbert Parmeter have debunked this bullshit.

[Sebastian Doyle]

31. Joe Conason is a DLC bootlicker

and I have no idea who the other guy is, and I can't find anything about him on Google, so there must be a reason for that.

And the Guardian is a solid newspaper. The kind we don't have in this country anymore, thanks to corporate consolidation. :evilfrown:

[SDuderstadt]

32. You don't know who Herbert Parmeter is????

Let me ask you a question. Can you disagree on the facts without demonizing everyone?

[Sebastian Doyle]

33. I don't "demonize" everyone

However, after watching the Bush Crime Family AND the DLC systematically destroy this country over the last 30 years, I damn well WILL demonize them. Hell, that's actually an insult to demons. :evilfrown:

Now who's this Herbie guy again?

[SDuderstadt]

42. Sorry...I meant Herbert Parmet...

historian and biographer.

[hyphenate]

41. Damn!

Nixon looks puny in those pictures.

In the first picture, I thought that if they ever made a movie about Prescott Bush, James Cromwell would be an excellent choice--he has the height and the hook nose!

[wtmusic]

11. And 2/3 could probably name 9 FOX personalities.

We're in trouble, folks.

[JackintheGreen]

12. I'll admit it: I always forget Breyer n/t

[tammywammy]

13. I ran through them in my head after I heard this on the radio

I forgot Kennedy. Still I think 8 out of 9 is pretty good. Plus, I immediately looked it up, and look now I remember the 9th. :)

[JackintheGreen]

15. I think its partially an applied memory thing,too

A few months back I was polled about world events or something like that. I was asked if I could name the PMs of England and Australia and drew a complete blank. Then the pollster offered to read me a list of names (I think it was five). As soon as I heard the names I easily had them easily assigned. I'm a smart guy. Well educated. Multiple degrees. Follow the news. But boy I couldn't call the names up while cooking dinner and watching my dogs in the back yard. I *felt* stupid, but there it is.

I'm not defending the people polled here, but the numbers would likely have been significantly higher if the question was "Which of the following people currently sits on the Supreme Court."

[Hosnon]

40. He's the one I always forget as well. nt.

[pattmarty]

14. That's our world class (race to the "top") education system.

I DIDN'T THINK I NEEDED TO USE THE SARCASM "THINGIE".

[kelly1mm]

34. No tests for social studies/history/government so it does not matter. You Betcha! nt

[totodeinhere]

16. That's just pathetic. And it's that same type of ignorance that keeps allowing Republicans to get

elected against the best interests of the people. Most voters are too stupid to know any better, so they fall for simplistic slogans.

[Demeter]

18. I Can Name 5 Injustices

Rehnquist, O'Connor, Alito, Thomas, Roberts...

[Zavulon]

21. This is exactly why Repugs usually manage to get roughly half the vote.

Imagine how much better it'd be for us if we had an informed electorate instead of a nation with so many political fucking retards.

[CynicalObserver]

39. its also why dnc manages to get about half the vote.

Informed voters as the rule, not the exception, would greatly transform politics in this country, and not in favor of either major party, I suspect. Issue number one that almost all voters would be able to agree on (except maybe those that pay no taxes) would involve the federal budget deficit and the federal debt.

[CLANG]

22. I'm so f-ing relieved!

I asked my wife and she came up with, "Thomas"? She couldn't remember his first name, but you got to start somewhere!:toast:

[Kievan Rus]

24. If one of 'em was on Dancing With the Stars, they'd know that one

[Sebastian Doyle]

29. They always have to have at least one far right douchebag on every season of the dumb show

so who should they get? Fat Tony? Opie Roberts? Clarence Thomas (so he can feel up all the female dancers)?

[lonestarnot]

27. We deserve every piece of shit unitary executive bullshit ruling they hand down.

Shameful!

[Deep13]

35. 'Course not! They already have names. ...

Huh? Oh. Nevermind.

:hide:

[HughBeaumont]

36. The Filthy Five/Shithead Seven:

Kennedy, Roberts, Alito, O'Connor, Scalia, Rehnquist, Thomas.

Bitch Pigs. Dick tit assrocket facilitators for Jesusland. Let's all turn UHmerica into one big criminal Pentacostal church filled with political/corporate crooks and the useless lobotomy patients that support them. Let's put a seriously unqualified dry drunk, below-average governor and failed businessman at the helm of the most powerful nation on earth. Sounds like a GREAT idea! Holy shit!

If anyone thinks the SCOTUS/Bewsh Coup wasn't all a giant fucking 10 year-long heist by the Corptocracy and the MIC, I have NO hope for them whatsoever.

[Winterblues]

37. And the polls showing Republican advantage for the midterms surprise us???

Stupid is as stupid does....America is a very stupid nation. I say stupid and not ignorant on purpose..

[KamaAina]

43. How do people that dumb manage to remain upright?

:dunce: :dunce: :dunce: