Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post found this completely depressing chart in the archives of Pew Research somewhere. I know it’s a little too easy to chortle at the ignorance of the American public, but I’m almost surprised Judge Joe Brown and Judge Reinhold didn’t make the chart at this point.
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2012.
I’ll be the first brave soul to take a bite of this: I didn’t know. I’m a relatively intelligent, informed person. Hell, I even listen to Democracy Now several times a week, and I had no clue. Not only that, but I’ve never even heard of John Roberts.
It’s a wonder I’ve managed to keep myself alive these 40 years.
Given their constitutional position, I’d almost think one definition of a good Chief Justice is that no one should know his/her name. The Court isn’t supposed to make news. It’s a failure of other parts of the system when it does.
This is one small reason people vote for inadequate presidential candidates….they don’t even know who the hell they are…..like Obongo……..
I answered Judge Judy
Sad thing is i am surprised that 28% got it correct
The people of this so called great country say they are involved, but most of them are so disengaged, hence the 28%.
It’s like on the Tonight Show when Jay ask people, who’s on a one dollar bill? (As he holds it up for them to see.) Most people don’t know.
Know wonder 1% run this country.
There’s a bit of extrapolation going on here, assumptions being made about people based on this rather unremarkable name not being known to them. Not knowing the name of one of the judges on the Supreme Court, Chief Justice or otherwise, doesn’t presuppose a lack of comprehension of the role of the court, nor of its current cases, nor does it prevent those justices from doing their jobs. Since we have no hand in selecting nor appointing them, and once they’re in they’re in –no matter how shitty a job or fucked up their politics (barring impeachment which, again, is out of our hands)–not knowing the name of one of these people has what effect exactly?
This is just an excuse to be a pompous ass without justification–and without honesty. I guarantee there are gaps in your knowledge somewhere. But it just feels so good to ignore that and look down your nose at someone else, doesn’t it?
I lost any respect I had for the Supreme Court and its decisions after Citizen United. Scalia and Thomas should share the same fate as Mussolini.
Lunazen111: You’re right that it makes little practical difference that almost 3/4 of the population doesn’t know who is the Chief Justice — just as it makes little practical difference that many people don’t know which continent Brazil is in or whether World War I came before or after the Napoleonic Wars. But it seems reasonable to be concerned about the signal which this sends about the education of the voting population and, whether or not one agrees, unreasonable to call the concerned person a “pompous ass.”