Fun (and Depressing) Fact of the Day: Two-Thirds of Americans Are Pretty Freakin' Dumb

Most Americans can't name a single Supreme Court justice. How depressing!

Despite all the recent controversy surrounding U.S. Supreme Court decisions on health care, immigration and other issues, nearly two-thirds of Americans can’t name even a single member of the Supreme Court.

— a depressing conclusion drawn from a recent FindLaw telephone survey on the Supreme Court.

(What else can be learned from the absurd results of this survey?)

The main implication here seems to be that as a nation, we’re just plain stupid. Seriously, it’s not very difficult to remember nine names. Unfortunately, most citizens are more concerned about committing all of the Kardashians’ names to memory. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs for our population.

According to the survey, here are the percentages of Americans who can name any sitting SCOTUS justice, ranked by individual justice:

  • John Roberts – 20%
  • Antonin Scalia – 16%
  • Clarence Thomas – 16%
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg – 13%
  • Sonia Sotomayor – 13%
  • Anthony Kennedy – 10%
  • Samuel Alito – 5%
  • Elena Kagan – 4%
  • Stephen Breyer – 3%

Sponsored

If anything, this just goes to show that SCOTUS arguments should be televised. Our country would be much more educated if there were shows like Keeping Up With the Kourt and The Real Justices of D.C.

Two-Thirds of Americans Can’t Name Any U.S. Supreme Court Justices, Says New FindLaw.com Survey [FindLaw (press release)]

Sponsored