First Amendment Survey

Table of Contents

[Note: Page numbers refer to pagination in original manuscript.]

Purpose 4

Introduction

History of the Bill of Rights to 1791 4

History of the Bill of Rights since 1971 5

Freedom of Speech 6

Freedom of the Press 8

Freedom of Religion 10

The Right to Assemble 12

The Right to Petition 13

Methodology

Participants 14

Instruments 14

Procedures 15

Results

Rate of Response 16

Preface to Results 16

Demographics 17

Sex of Respondents 17

Race of Respondents 18

Age of Respondents 18

Household Income 19

Intentions to vote in 2004 19

Political Affiliation 20

Knowledge of First Amendment Rights 21

General Opinions on Amount of First Amendment Protections 23

Too Much, Just Right, Too Little Freedom of Speech 23

Too Much, Just Right, Too Little Freedom of the Press 24

Too Much, Just Right, Too Little Freedom of Religion 24

Personal Experience with Violations of First Amendment Rights 25

Opinions on Currently Debated First Amendment Issues

Should public schools require instruction on First Amendment rights? 26

Should public schools have a designated time for prayer? 26

Should public schools punish students for using racist/sexist speech? 27

Should the phrase “under God” be removed from the Pledge? 27

Should people be punished for burning/defacing the American flag as a political statement? 28

Should people be punished for protesting on public property? 29

Should people be punished for publicly criticizing our government during wartime? 29

Should journalists be able to publish freely without government censorship? 30

Should the government, as a part of the war on terrorism, be able to monitor certain religious groups, even if it means infringing on their religious freedoms? 30

Should the government, as a part of the war on terrorism, be able to monitor which books and other materials people check out of public libraries? 31

Conclusions 32

Recommendations for Future Research 36

Final Word 37p

References 34

Appendix A: Telephone Introduction 41

Appendix B: First Amendment Questionnaire 42

Appendix C: Optical Scan Questionnaire 46