Thurgood Marshall is chief justice? 8 percent of Americans think so
Not only are many Americans apparently unaware that former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall passed away in 1993, but they believe he is the current chief justice.
That is according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center.
Only 28 percent of Americans surveyed correctly identified Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. from four possible names in the multiple-choice survey. 
What’s worse, of the four choices, only Roberts is a current justice on the Court. The other choices: Marshall, John Paul Stevens (a retired justice, if you didn’t know – he got 6 percent of the vote) and Harry Reid (who has never been on the Court – he works across the street as Senate Majority Leader. He nabbed 4 percent of the votes).
By contrast, in 1986, 43 percent of respondents could identify then Chief Justice William Rehnquist from a list of four current and former justices.
Today, Americans are much more willing to admit their lack of knowledge about who is on the bench, however. More than half – 53 percent, to be exact – admitted that they just didn’t know, compared to 16 percent in 1986.
