Its ridiculous, but nonetheless these polls are often rigged to try to manufacture these types of headlines. Here is the actually question:
Which of the following people serves on the U.S. Supreme Court?
a) Elena Kagan
b) Lawrence Warren Pierce
c) John Kerry
d) Judith Sheindlin
e) Refused
The answers were selected in the following percentages:
a - 61.6% of college graduates, 44.0 % of all respondents
b - 21.7% of college graduates, 26.5 % of all respondents
c - 5.5% of college graduates, 11.5% of all respondents
d - 9.6% of college graduates, 13.1% of all respondents
e - 1.6%, 4.9%
Now clearly, most people probably have no idea that Judge Judy is named Judith Sheindlin. If the question said "Judge Judy" then the precentages would have been way lower. So you've got people who don't know the answer and are left guessing. Many of whom would recognize John Kerry as not being a correct answer. So basically of those who don't recognize Elena Kagan as a Supreme Court justice, they are guessing from three names if they know who John Kerry is or four names if they don't. Of course a certain number are going to guess the unrecognizable name "Judith Sheindlin".
I agree its scary that so many Americans wouldn't recognize Elena Kagan as the name of a Supreme Court justice, but nonetheless I think its indisputable that this question was designed to give a nice "dumb Americans think Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court" headline.
