ANNUAL CIVICS SURVEY

The annual Civics Survey, a study conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, measures how much Americans know about how our government works. The survey, which comes out Tuesday, notes that those who said they took high school civics were more likely to answer the questions about our government correctly. Here are some of this year’s findings:
– One in five adults – 20% of Americans – still can’t name even one of the three branches of government.
– 55% correctly answered that Democrats have majority in the House, while 61% knew Republicans control the senate.
– About 60% knew that a 5-4 ruling on a case by the U.S. Supreme Court meant that the decision became law and must be followed.
– About 60% also knew if the Supreme Court and president disagree on a constitutional question, the Supreme Court makes the final call.
– When asked whether illegal immigrants had any rights under the Constitution, only 55% correctly noted that they indeed had some rights.
* 83% thought that civics were cars made by Honda.
* The three branches of government are easy: legislative, judicial, and temperamental.
* We don’t know how government works. Way to make us feel good that we’re going to elect one next year.
* Do we really need a yearly reminder of how stupid we are? We kinda get that on the news every night.
* The Annenberg Public Policy Center just does this so they can sit around afterwards feeling superior.