Elected Officials Flunk Constitution Quiz

Newly elected lawmakers take oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution. Would it surprise you to know that most lawmakers have little idea what the Constitution actually says? A recent survey shows that elected officials have LESS of an understanding of the Constitution than does the general public.

In a series of ten questions about the Constitution contained inside a larger survey, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute found that the general public answered 54% of these ten questions correctly, while elected officials only answered 49% of them correctly. Now, most of these ten questions weren't that difficult.

Would you like to see the questions, and maybe take the quiz yourself?


The questions are listed below. Where I know specifically how the two demographic groups (elected officials/general public) answered each question, I will include that data in parenthesis after the question.

1) What are the three branches of government? (49%/50%)
A. executive, legislative, judicial
B. executive, legislative, military
C. bureaucratic, military, industry
D. federal, state, local

2) What part of the government has the power to declare war? (46%/54%)
A. Congress
B. the president
C. the Supreme Court
D. the Joint Chiefs of Staff

3) In the area of United States foreign policy, Congress shares power with the:
A. president
B. Supreme Court
C. state governments
D. United Nations

4) The United States Electoral College: (57%/66%)
A. trains those aspiring for higher political office
B. was established to supervise the first televised presidential debates
C. is otherwise known as the U.S. Congress
D. is a constitutionally mandated assembly that elects the president
E. was ruled undemocratic by the Supreme Court

5) What impact did the Anti-Federalists have on the United States Constitution?
A. their arguments helped lead to the adoption of the Bill of Rights
B. their arguments helped lead to the abolition of the slave trade
C. their influence ensured that the federal government would maintain a standing army
D. their influence ensured that the federal government would have the power to tax

6) The phrase that in America there should be a "wall of separation" between church and state appears in: (15%/19%)
A. George Washington's Farewell Address
B. the Mayflower Compact
C. the Constitution
D. the Declaration of Independence
E. Thomas Jefferson's letters

7) The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits:
A. prayer in public school
B. discrimination based on race, sex, or religion
C. the ownership of guns by private individuals
D. establishing an official religion for the United States
E. the president from vetoing a line item in a spending bill

8) Identify one right or freedom below guaranteed by the first amendment.
A. Right to bear arms
B. Due process
C. Religion
D. Right to counsel

9) Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government listed below?
A. Make treaties
B. Make zoning laws
C. Maintain prisons
D. Establish standards for doctors and lawyers

10) Who is the commander in chief of the U.S. military?
A. Secretary of the army
B. Secretary of state
C. President
D. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

I'll give the answers in a moment so that you can score yourself. I got all of them right, and a co-worker of mine got nine out of ten.

But before I give you the answers, let me comment a bit. How can elected officials uphold the Constitution if they don't understand it? This is the obvious look of these results. Don't have much faith when your elected officials claim what they are doing is Constitutional, because YOU probably understand the Constitution better than THEY do.

Here's another thought I had, and it's not an encouraging one. People who believe in the Constitution and who understand it are often viewed as wackos. Why? Because the general public only half-understand the document. So those knowledgeable of what the Constitution says are viewed as "extreme" and "fringe."

And this is unlikely to change, because voters don't like to elect "wacko" candidates, so those candidates who understand and will try to uphold the Constitution are unlikely ever to get elected.

This is an entirely depressing survey.

As promised, here are the correct answers for the quiz. How did YOU do?

1) A
2) A
3) A
4) D
5) A
6) E
7) D
8) C
9) A
10) C