Institutions of Democracy

Many Americans Lack Basic Understanding of the Judiciary Americans consistently rank the Supreme Court as the most trusted branch of government and hold a similar level of trust in state courts. But many also believe that the nation’s courts favor the wealthy and politically connected, that judges are motivated by political and personal biases, and

Contrary to what they have been taught in civics books, over one-third of American adults thinks it is okay for the president to ignore a Supreme Court ruling if the president believes the ruling will prevent him from protecting the country against terrorist attacks, according to a recent APPC survey.

FactCheck.org, the nonpartisan website devoted to reducing the level of confusion and deception in U.S. politics, yesterday was named by Time.com as one of “25 Sites We Can’t Live Without.” FactCheck, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, joins web heavies such as Google, Amazon, Ebay, ESPN, Wikipedia and