Law & Society Blog

Empricial Legal Studies Blog has a set of interesting statistics about the public’s knowledge about who’s on the Supreme Court.

Together, these three surveys reveal a fairly stable level of knowledge–or perhaps a stable lack of knowledge. Over half the population cannot name even a single sitting Supreme Court justice. Of those who can name one or more justices, the results are largely consistent in all three surveys. O’Connor was the most well-known in all three; Stevens and Breyer were the least well known. And although Thomas appears less well-known now than in 1995, most of the remaining variation in the surveys is likely within the range of sampling error. (Scalia may be slightly more well known now than in 1995.) One major difference in the December 2005 survey is that Chief Justice Roberts was a correct answer, not Rehnquist. But despite Roberts’ confirmation in September and all of the media coverage that went along with it, only 16% could recall his name by December.

It would be interesting to take the same survey as part of the bar admission process or at the ABA Spring Meeting. (Just kidding.)

Technorati Tags: supreme court, perception, O’Connor

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