{"id":13490,"date":"2015-05-14T07:00:29","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T12:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/dim-public-awareness-of-supreme-court-as-major-rulings-loom\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:19:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:19:53","slug":"dim-public-awareness-of-supreme-court-as-major-rulings-loom","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/05\/14\/dim-public-awareness-of-supreme-court-as-major-rulings-loom\/","title":{"rendered":"Dim public awareness of Supreme Court as major rulings loom"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPOILER ALERT:<\/strong> This post is based in part on Pew Research Center\u2019s latest News IQ Quiz. If you haven\u2019t taken the quiz yet, you might want to <\/em>do so now<\/em><\/a> before reading on.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

\"Supreme<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

In the next few weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue rulings that could potentially affect same-sex marriage<\/a>, health care<\/a> and capital punishment<\/a> in the United States.<\/p>\n\n

Yet it remains an institution whose members \u2013 and even the facts about some of its most important decisions \u2013 are a mystery to many Americans.<\/p>\n\n

In Pew Research Center\u2019s most recent knowledge quiz<\/a>, just 33% knew that there are three women on the Supreme Court \u2013 Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. A higher percentage (39%) said that there are two women on the high court, while 14% said there is one and 4% said four.<\/p>\n\n

It was by far the lowest correct response percentage for any of the 12 questions in the quiz. But lack of awareness about the Supreme Court\u2019s members is nothing new. In fact, Americans have fared no better when asked other questions about the court\u2019s members in recent years.<\/p>\n\n

An August 2013 survey<\/a> included the names and photos of four justices \u2013 Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas \u2013 and asked which one had most often been the court\u2019s \u201cswing vote.\u201d Despite the fact that there had been several closely divided Supreme Court cases during the 2012-2013 term in which Kennedy\u2019s votes were often decisive, just 28% correctly identified him as the swing vote.<\/p>\n\n

Chief Justice John Roberts is also not well-known. In July 2012, shortly after Roberts cast the deciding vote upholding most of the Affordable Care Act, just 34% identified Roberts<\/a> as chief justice from a list that included Stephen Breyer, Harry Reid and William Rehnquist. That was not much better than the 28% who identified Roberts from a similar list in 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\"What<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Some of the court\u2019s pending decisions \u2013 especially its highly anticipated decision on same-sex marriage \u2013 could draw substantial public attention. But in recent years, awareness of the results of high-profile decisions has varied widely.<\/p>\n\n

In June 2013, the Supreme Court ruled<\/a> that married gay couples were entitled to federal benefits and, in effect, allowed same-sex marriages in California. These decisions registered strongly with the public<\/a>: 66% said the court had ruled in favor of same-sex marriage supporters, and 67% knew it had ruled that states can determine where gay couples can marry; 15% incorrectly said that the court permitted same-sex couples to marry in all 50 states.<\/p>\n\n

However, a year earlier, fewer Americans correctly answered a basic question about the court\u2019s ruling<\/a> on the Affordable Care Act. Despite a lengthy buildup to the court\u2019s ruling and high public interest in the case, just 55% knew that the court had upheld most provisions<\/a> of the ACA; 15% said the court had rejected most parts of the law, while 30% said they didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n

And the public showed limited understanding of the court\u2019s ruling in June 2013 \u2013 issued a day before its decision on the same-sex marriage cases \u2013 that struck down a key part<\/a> of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Just 34% knew that the court had overturned parts of the law, while 23% thought it had upheld the law as it was and 43% said they didn\u2019t know.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Supreme Court remains an institution whose members \u2013 and even the facts about some of its most important decisions \u2013 are a mystery to many Americans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[364,78],"bylines":[862],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-13490","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-public-knowledge","category-supreme-court","bylines-meredith-dost","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-politics"],"label":"Short 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