WASHINGTON (RNS)—Nearly one in five Americans incorrectly believes Muslim citizens don’t have the same First Amendment rights as other American citizens, and one in seven believes atheists aren’t protected by those rights.
These are among the findings of a new study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
The study also found only a fraction of Americans surveyed—15 percent—named freedom of religion when asked to name the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment. Those rights are freedom of religion, speech and the press, and the right of assembly and to petition the government.
“These results emphasize the need for high-quality civics education in the schools and for press reporting that underscores the existence of constitutional protections,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
The study also showed:
- More than half of Americans surveyed—53 percent—believe undocumented persons have no constitutional rights. Actually, they do. The Supreme Court settled that more than 130 years ago in Yick Wo v. Hopkins, ruling the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause extends to noncitizens.
- Little more than one-third of those asked (37 percent) could not, unprompted, name a single First Amendment protection.
- Only a quarter of Americans (26 percent) could name all three branches of the government—legislative, executive and judicial.
The sample included 1,013 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
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