The new congressional leadership has pledged to require a citation of the constitutional justification for any new legislation, which would be comforting if we could believe legislators actually know and understand the Constitution. But, well. Over the last five years, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute has surveyed more than 30,000 Americans 33 basic civics questions, including 10 on the Constitution. Mostly college students were surveyed, but there was also a random sample of adults, including elected public officials. The results aren't pretty:
Elected officials at many levels of government, not just the federal government, swear an oath to "uphold and protect" the U.S. Constitution.
But those elected officials who took the test scored an average 5 percentage points lower than the national average (49 percent vs. 54 percent), with ordinary citizens outscoring these elected officials on each constitutional question.
[. . .]
The fact that our elected representatives know even less about America's history and institutions than the typical citizen (who doesn't know much either) is troubling indeed, but perhaps helps explain the lack of constitutional discipline often displayed by our political class at every level of our system.
Only 49 percent of elected officials could even name all three branches of government, and only 46 knew it was the Congress rather than the president having the power to declare war. Sheesh.
Here are the 10 questions if you want to check out your own constitutional knowledge.
