Poll: 94% of New Jerseyans can't name a state Supreme Court Justice

A survey released by pollster Kellyanne Conway says that 94% of New Jersey's registered voters cannot name a single State Supreme Court Justice, and that the public is largely ignorant of about most aspects of the court.

The number presents an interesting juxtaposition to the political fury around the renomination of Associate Justice Barry Albin, 56.  After serving his preliminary seven year term, he is up for tenure until mandatory retirement at age 70.

In a conference call with two conservative New Jersey attorneys, Conway said that the low level of familiarity with the court "should be regarded as an opportunity, not an obstacle. They do want to know more about the court."

The poll of 500 registered voters was conducted between January 9 and 10 -- long before the nomination of Sonya Sotomayor brought some aspects of the judicial debate into the public eye.  It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38%.

Although the call was billed as a discussion of Albin's renomination, participants focused on broad judicial principles rather than Albin's specific decisions. Conway and the two others - Tom Gentile, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito when he sat on the United State Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; and Cheryl Stanton, a former special assistant and associate White House counsel to President George W. Bush - reiterated Republican legislators' calls for a longer confirmation hearing.

Conway said that the public's lack of knowledge about the court gave more reason to extend the hearing.

"It certainly can't hurt to increase the basic knowledge of New Jerseyans about the process and the people who sit on the court about what their philosophies are," she said.

Conway said her poll also suggested that New Jersey's by and large favored judicial restraint over judicial activism.  When asked to rate the importance of traits that a State Supreme Court nominee should have, 76% of respondents said it was of high importance to find a judge "who will interpret the law as written," while only 19% said it was of high importance to find a judge who "will incorporate his or her personal viewpoints into rulings and decisions."

Gentile, for his part, said that he supports Republican legislators' call for a three day hearing on the Albin nomination.  He was hesitant to directly criticize Albin, however, referring only to his ruling on civil unions as "interesting."

"The question is really whether having unelected judges make that decision rather than the people of New Jersey and their elected representatives... is the way to go," he said.

Stanton said that it's important to bring the public's attention to the State Supreme Court because many of its decisions - particularly regarding school funding and affordable housing - have a lot to do with how much they pay in property taxes.

"On a court that really does have a lot of power in the constitution and really does affect a number of aspects of New Jersey lives," she said.

Although the Federalist Society bills itself as a "group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order," spokesman Keith Appell - a Republican operative whose public relations firm is helping lead the charge against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonya Sotomayor - said that the group does not specifically endorse or oppose any judicial nominees.  Appell said that the Federalist Society would offer other viewpoints in the future, even though all three of today's participants were conservative.

"We reached out to people with a variety of different viewpoints on it, but these were the people who were available today," he said.