The Annenberg Public Policy Center keeps tabs on what Americans know – or don’t know – about the Supreme Court. Findings show a struggle to identify the three branches of government, never mind naming the nine current justices.
Lawrence, Kansas-based teacher Matt Beat has over 1 million subscribers to his Mr. Beat and The Beat Goes On YouTube channels, through which he aims to make up some of those lost civics lessons. His new book, The Power of Our Supreme Court: How Supreme Court Cases Shape Democracy, has the same goal.
Beat and the Library’s Steve Woolfolk discuss the presidential election, those forgotten or never-known details about the Supreme Court, and how the results of 100 court cases, going back to 1793’s Chisholm v. Georgia, have affected the lives of every American.
(Chisholm v. Georgia led to the passage of the 11th Amendment which restricts the ability of citizens to sue in federal court, states they don’t live in.)
