Government

Survey Says At Least 22% Of Public’s Constitutional Knowledge Is Just Vibes

[The Masses] are neither good conductors of the political, nor good conductors of the social, nor good conductors of meaning in general. - Jean Baudrillard

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Aren’t you glad it applies to public schools too?

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Daily, we are presented with evidence that the general public has insufficient funds. Besides rampant consumerism, the Constitution serves as the bedrock of our nation. It’s the least the Supreme Law can do, after all. That’s why it’s kind of cringey when people who claim to know about the document pull a Coney Barrett. And according to this survey, that’s a lot of people. From ABA Journal:

Seventy-seven percent of surveyed Americans were able to recall that the First Amendment protects freedom of speech, but less than half were able to name other rights protected by that amendment.

The 2023 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey asked Americans to name the specific rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. The results:

77% said freedom of speech
40% said freedom of religion
33% said the right to assembly
28% said freedom of the press
9% said the right to petition government
Twenty-two percent named the right to bear arms, which is actually protected by the Second Amendment.

Only 5% correctly named all five First Amendment rights. Twenty percent could not correctly name any.

Come on, dude! I’d understand if we were talking about the 14th Amendment — several sitting justices have demonstrated their lack of familiarity with that one.  But the First one? Start of the page? Do better, y’all.

As embarrassing as this is, the poll results may provide some clarity to why a judge not knowing that the First Amendment protected the right to protest was a red flag — only 9% of respondents knew that. It may also explain why people so readily respond “Well, maybe they should have respected authority” whenever footage is released of some cop egging his colleagues to run protesters over. The next time some person is flabbergasted as to why the police lost a lawsuit where they were caught kettling protestors, try to keep these results in mind for sanity’s sake.

Or should the take away be that 22% of people think the Second is the most important? What’s the use of free assembly and the right to protest if you can’t bring your automatics? Well, they’d still have poor reading comprehension — I’m not buying that excuse.

Happy early Constitution Day.

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22% of Americans Think First Amendment Protects Gun Rights, Says Poll Released Before Constitution Day [ABA Journal]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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