Survey: 40% of Americans Could Not Name a Single First Amendment Right

A staggering 40 percent of Americans could not name a single First Amendment right, according to a recent survey on the First Amendment.

The Freedom Forum Institute’s 2018 “State of the First Amendment Survey” (SOFA) noted that, out of a sample of more than 1,000 Americans, 40 percent of them could not name a single First Amendment right under the U.S. Constitution.

Of the few who could name at least one of the five First Amendment rights, 36 percent could name only one while 12 percent could recall two.

Those surveyed who could recall more than three of the five First Amendment rights made up less than ten percent of survey respondents — eight percent of respondents could name three, and three percent could name all but one.

Only one person could name all five rights included in the First Amendment, according to the survey.

Most survey respondents remembered the right to freedom of speech, which 56 percent of those surveyed could recall.

But not many could remember the other four rights: 15 percent of respondents could name the right to freedom of religion, 13 percent named freedom of the press, 12 percent recalled freedom of peaceful assembly, and only two percent could identify the right to freely petition the government.

The one silver lining to this survey is that the number of Americans who could not recall a single right under the First Amendment has not increased since 2016. However, the share of Americans who could not identify a single right under the First Amendment increased since 2014 and 2015.