For the 17th year in a row, the First Amendment Center has published a national survey of American attitudes about the First Amendment. Here is one of the key findings of the just-released survey:
Higher percentages of young Americans tend to agree with the statement that the First Amendment goes too far in the rights that it guarantees. Forty-seven percent of 18-30-year-olds agree, while 44% of 31-45-year-olds, 24% of 46-60-year-olds and 23% of people over 60 agree that the First Amendment goes too far.
As FIRE President Greg Lukianoff writes in his book, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate, “campus censorship … teaches students the wrong lessons about living in a free society,” and these survey results give stark evidence that this observation is true. Such a misunderstanding of the crucial role that free speech plays in a pluralistic society is troubling news for our republic.
View the full survey results here.