Take a quick little quiz; before you read the rest of this, jot down as many names of Supreme Court Justices as you can. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Done? How many did you get? Three? Five? All nine? Well if those were the numbers you are doing better than 2/3 of your fellow countrymen who could only name one. That’s right nine of the most important people in the nation in terms of impact on our lives, and most citizens can’t name more than one.

Findlaw.com has released a poll asking folks to name the Supreme Court Justices. Most could only name a single Justice. Even the newest Justice Sonia Sotomayor who was confirmed just last year was only named by 15% of those surveyed!

This is a real problem, even though as FindLaw notes the Justices rule collectively if people don’t understand who is on the High Court and why that makes a difference in how rulings are decided it is nearly impossible to get them to care about it. While President Obama will have at least another two years in the White House and the chance, perhaps, to name one or two more Justices if Republicans manage to recapture the Senate (not very likely but not completely impossible at this point) then who is confirmed to a lifetime appointment will be radically changed. We have already seen the damage that conservative justices can do with the appointment of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito. We are also in the position of having to live with less than liberal Justices because of the White Houses weak-kneed concerns about confirmation. What would we get if they had to get past a Republican controlled Senate?

It has long been a frustration of mine that the people of this nation know so little about their government and how it functions, but this really takes the cake! If you don’t even know who is saying that a law is or isn’t constitutional, how in the world can you have a valid opinion about the job they are doing?

By the way, only 1% of those surveyed were able to name all nine. Think about that for a second.

This kind of stuff makes me weep for the future of our nation.

Oh, if you want to check your answers the Justices of the High Court are Roberts (CJ), Scalia, Alito, Thomas, Sotomayor, Kennedy, Breyer, Stevens and Ginsburg.

The floor is yours