Fewer Than a Third of Americans Know Supreme Court Rulings can't be appealed

[swag]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/09-13-2007/0004662377&EDATE=THU+Sep+13+2007,+01:10+PM

. . .

When asked "if a person disagrees with a ruling by the U.S. Supreme
Court can he or she appeal the ruling to the Federal Court of Appeals?"
only 30 percent know that the high court rulings are final, 32 percent
think rulings can be appealed and 38 percent are "not sure" or "don't
know."

"These survey findings show just how important it is to educate all
Americans about their government and the Constitution that created it,"
said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy
Center. "The health of a democracy depends on an enlightened and engaged
citizenry."

Other findings include:

-- A majority of Americans, 55 percent, do not know that when the
Supreme Court rules five to four on a case the decision is the law
and needs to be followed. Fourteen percent believe the decision is
sent to Congress for reconsideration, seven percent believe the
decision is sent back to the lower courts and 34 percent simply
"don't know."

-- Only one in seven Americans (15 percent) can correctly name John
Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States while two-thirds of
Americans (66 percent) know at least one of the judges on the Fox
television show American Idol.
. . .

[ThomWV]

1. O Wow Man! You mean someone can't appeal to the President - can't he do what he wants?

Same sort of idiots that think that the President is the "Leader of the Free World".

He is the head of one of three branches of Government, nothing more.

[Justitia]

2. OMG, that's horrifying! -eom

[Mythsaje]

3. Our schools are falling down on this...

Big Time.

[bridgit]

4. double stamp'zz, no erase'zz?!?!?! that's fucked up...

x(

[swag]

5. Yeah. Where's my re-do?

[L. Coyote]

6. unless changed by the Supreme Court, not?

[hootinholler]

19. Well, there's the principle of Stare Decisis

Which says they're supposed to have a really good reason to overturn a prior decision. They also cannot arbitrarily take up an issue, they need a new case. But yes, they can overturn themselves.

-Hoot

[Chipper Chat]

7. Al knew it was safe to grow a beard after Dec 2000.

Thanks a lot Sandra D.

[porphyrian]

8. Those in power want to keep it this way.

If they cared how little the most of us know about the system, they'd actually fund education in a significant way.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. For this I went to law school?

I knew this stuff BEFORE I went to law school.

Circa 1982: Two preppie classmates said "Now that there's a woman on the Supreme Court maybe some day there'll be a black person."

Ronnie Reagan had just appointed Sandra Day O'Connor.

Well, when I heard that statement I was stunned. Then I said, "Excuse me. There is a black man on the Supreme Court already. His name is Thurgood Marshall. He was counsel to the Plaintiffs on Brown v. Board of Education. He was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson.

"And by the way, about five miles east of here, there's a law school NAMED AFTER HIM. The Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University."

These law students looked at me like I was NUTS.

:banghead:

[redqueen]

11. *sigh*

every day it gets harder and harder to consider "Idiocracy" a work of fiction

[BlooInBloo]

10. Nothing's final. SCOTUS decisions can be overturned by the same or future SCOTUS.

[swag]

12. I just changed the PR Newswire headline for clarification.

Gracias.

[BlooInBloo]

15. I'm not a lawyer, but I play a picky-ass mofo on tv. :)

[SoCalDem]

14. and congress can (and often does) re-do legislation that legally

changes laws that SCOTUS may have "shot down".. It does not do the people actually involved in the SCOTUS cases, but often by the time a case gets to the scotus, those people have long-since moved on anyway..

[no_hypocrisy]

22. Or "simply" amending the Constituion.

[BlooInBloo]

25. Yup - that's one of the 2 checks on the SCOTUS. Or 3, depending how you count.

[stevedeshazer]

13. Most Americans are uneducated and incurious.

I'm surprised that it's just 55%.

[BlooInBloo]

16. Nobody ever went broke betting on the stupidity of the American public...

... I can't remember who said that - love that line.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. LOL at irony.

That was Mencken.

[BlooInBloo]

20. GAHHH!!!!!

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[treestar]

18. And then they condemn it when they don't agree with it

I love it when they are condemned as "unelected." As if they are nothing but an extra legislature.

It is scary that the very concept of the rule of law is beyond the comprehension of so many of the voters.

I have a relative with a doctorate in chemistry, no less, who cannot understand why the Supreme Court does not have to be unanimous, like a jury. He really thinks he is brilliant for picking out that "flaw" and no amount of explanation gets through to him.

[TexasLawyer]

21. The "Supreme Court" isn't final because it's supreme.

It's supreme because it's final.

A quote from my Constitutional Law professor.

[Bitwit1234]

23. So Roe vs Wade will last into infinity...correct.

[Roon]

24. I didn't know

That's kind of scary.