Litigation

Supreme Court Justice Who?

By Peter Hardin

Just how ignorant are we about the U.S. Supreme Court? The official results are in.

Almost two-thirds of Americans cannot name one Supreme Court justice, according to a survey by FindLaw.com, and only 35 percent of Americans can name a single justice.

You can read a press release about the survey by clicking here, and find out more details. For example, Justice Clarence Thomas is best known of the justices, with 19 percent of Americans knowing his name. Fewer than 1 percent of respondents could name all nine justices.

Michael C. Dorf, a former Supreme Court clerk who teaches law at Cornell University, did not find the survey results surprising.

Dorf said, “After their 15 minutes before the Senate Judiciary Committee are up, Supreme Court justices rarely appear on television. What is a source for concern are polls consistently showing that many Americans are unfamiliar with basic features of our constitutional system.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 01, 2010 (boomark / email).