Granted!
However:
1. I would agree about the State of their respective births being somewhat trivial. However, where the President is currently residing is important since both the President and Vice-presiential candidates on the same ticket on the ballot cannot be residents from the same State. This came up with BUSH/CHENEY 2000
2. The specific number of the amendment is generally not critical to the general understanding but amendments such as the 1st, 2nd and 4th should be well recognized and understood. Only Hollywood Idiots are expected to confuse these.
3. Actually, the number of justices on the Supreme Court is currently 9 but has actually varied over history from 6 to 9 until 1869. FDR tried to pull a fast one on all of us when he attempted to make it 15 at one point but a constitutionally sound U.S. Senate in 1937 stopped him.(Come to think of it, FDR was a bit like OBAMA after all)
4. Un-ratified constitutional amendments might be considered fairly unimportant, unless you are unsure about the status of the equal rights amendment and the one about burning the flag which were proposed since 1964.
Thank you for your contribution to this discussion.
1) The Constitution doesn’t say that they cannot be from the same state. However, the 12th Amendment does say that electors may not vote for a President from their state and a Vice President also from their state. So it is less a constitutional issue than a tactical issue for candidates running for office. But not what I would call an Earth-shattering point for the public to know, compared to a lot of other issues.
2) Amendments are not equal in importance. The emphasis has always been on the Bill of Rights, the first 10, which should be considered as fundamentally different from the other 17, that are organizational, except those that expand on the Bill of Rights. These would be the 13th (slavery), 14th (citizenship), 15th (suffrage), 18th and 21st (prohibition), 19th (women’s suffrage), 24th (no poll taxes), and 26th (voting age).
3) I used the number of justices as it is more common knowledge than the “ambush question” often used to show Americans are ignorant. That is, thrusting a microphone in someone’s face and demanding a list of the *names* of the justices.
4) Other amendment questions that would be entertaining, though trick questions, would be which amendment guarantees Indians (Native Americans) the right to vote; what amendment permits the President and congress to take most of the lands in the western States for national parks and preserves.
Other questions: From a list select the US territories. How many miles out are the territorial waters of the US.