Education

Shock Poll: Almost 10% Of US College Grads Think JUDGE JUDY Is On The Supreme Court

Font Size:

A newly-published report shows that almost 10 percent of America’s college graduates think Judge Judy is a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Among other lowlights, the report shows that almost 60 percent of college grads have no idea how to amend the Constitution. Also, nearly half of the people who have earned bachelor’s degrees in this country don’t realize that U.S. senators serve six-year terms while members of the U.S. House of Representatives serve two-year terms.

The January 2016 report is from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA).

“Many of the figures may actually understate how poorly our colleges are doing because older respondents performed significantly better than younger ones,” the ACTA report explains. “For example, 98.2% of college graduates over the age of 65 knew that the president cannot establish taxes — but only 73.8% of college graduates aged 25–34 answered correctly.”

Similarly, though most college graduates who are 65 or older know how to amend the Constitution, less than a third of college grads between the ages of 25 and 34 appear to have any basic understanding of the process. (RELATED: UN Ambassador Samantha Power Tells Fancypants College Grads How Afghanistan Is Superior To USA)

And just one-third of all Americans can name a single right guaranteed under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The ACTA survey question (No. 1 out of 12) demonstrating that America’s college graduates are colossal idiots when it comes the U.S. Supreme Court asks: “Which of the following people serves on the U.S. Supreme Court?”

On the bright side, 61.6 percent of America’s college graduates (and 44 percent of Americans of all education levels) correctly selected Elena Kagan.

And now for the dismal news: 9.6 percent of college grads (and 13.1 percent of everyone) selected Judith Sheindlin — better known as Judge Judy. Almost 6 percent of America’s college grads said Secretary of State John Kerry is a Supreme Court justice. Meanwhile, 21.7 percent selected Lawrence Warren Pierce, a retired, 91-year-old Second Circuit judge.

Past ACTA surveys show that the nation is quickly going to hell in a handbasket because Americans don’t know jack about the basic workings of their government.

“A survey published early in 2015 found that over one-third could not place the Civil War within the correct 20-year time frame,” for example.

ACTA is a bipartisan group that promotes a broad core curriculum in the liberal arts and sciences and general academic seriousness on U.S. college campuses.

“In today’s world, when so many nations are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to incorporate different ethnic, religious, and racial groups, the case for reminding Americans of their history in our museums and in our schools and colleges and universities . . . could not be stronger  especially as that history conveys our nation’s stunning successful recipe, based on the documents of our founding, for an inclusive and tolerant society,” New-York Historical Society president Louise Mirrer said in 2014 while accepting an ACTA award.

Judge Judy — Sheindlin — is a retired family court judge who presides abrasively over her own highly-rated daytime reality show in which she dresses like a real judge and arbitrates small-claims court cases in the format of a bench trial.

Sheindlin earned her law degree from New York Law School in 1965. She served as a real judge in New York City from 1982 to 1996.

The statistics in the ACTA report are based on an August 2015 survey of a total of 1,000 adults across America. GfK, a large market research firm, conducted the survey and weighted it in several categories including race, age, education and income.

Follow Eric on TwitterLike Eric on Facebook. Send education-related story tips to erico@dailycaller.com.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel