A majority of Americans can’t recall most First Amendment rights

Less than half of Americans can name most of the rights protected under the First Amendment and under two-thirds can name the three branches of government, according to the Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey, released annually since 2014.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center’s nationally representative survey, conducted in May 2024 with about 1,600 U.S. adults, finds levels of public knowledge largely unchanged from 2023. As was true last year, most Americans could name only a single right guaranteed by the First Amendment: freedom of speech, provided by nearly 3 in 4 respondents.

The survey also found strong public support for several potential reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court, including term limits, mandatory retirement ages, and prohibiting justices from participating in cases in which they have “personal or financial interests.”

Highlights

The 2024 edition of the Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey, released annually to celebrate Constitution Day on September 17, finds that:

• Nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) can name all three branches of government.
• Asked what specific rights are guaranteed by the First Amendment, nearly three-quarters of respondents (74%) name freedom of speech. The other four rights are recalled by far fewer people: the second most-often cited, freedom of religion, is named by just 39%.  
• Over 80% of Americans support prohibiting Supreme Court justices from participating in cases in which they have “personal or financial interests.” Nearly as many people support creation of a formal ethics code for the court.
• A little over half of U.S. adults know that Democrats control the Senate (55%) and that Republicans control the House of Representatives (56%).

“Civics knowledge matters,” says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. “Those who do not understand the rights protected by the Constitution can neither cherish nor invoke them; those who do not know which party controls the House and Senate may misattribute credit or blame for action or inaction.”

The Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey is a nationally representative survey conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. This year’s online survey of 1,590 U.S. adults was conducted May 1-23, 2024, for APPC by SSRS, an independent research company. The margin of error is ± 3.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For more information, see the full release and topline.

The branches of government and the First Amendment

The three branches: Nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) can name all three branches of government, 13% can name two, 8% can name one, and 15% cannot name any, unchanged from last year.

The First Amendment: Respondents were asked if they could name the specific rights guaranteed under the First Amendment:

• Three-quarters (74%) say freedom of speech
• Under 4 in 10 (39%) say freedom of religion
• Less than a third (29%) say freedom of the press
• Over a quarter (27%) say the right to assembly
• About 1 in 10 (11%) say the right to petition the government

Less than a third of respondents (30%) can name a majority of rights (three or more). Only 7% of respondents can name all five First Amendment rights, while 23% can name three or four, and about half (48%) can name one or two. About 1 in 5 people (21%) cannot name any.

Although 11% correctly say the right to petition the government, twice as many people (22%) incorrectly name the right to bear arms, which instead is protected by the Second Amendment.

Support for Supreme Court reforms

In recent years, surveys have shown declining trust and confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Constitution Day Survey has found that from 2019 to 2022, confidence in the Supreme Court plunged 22 percentage points, from 68% to 46%. With this changing environment as a backdrop, the 2024 survey asked respondents about measures that have been discussed to reform the Supreme Court:

• Prohibiting participation of justices with conflicts: 82% support prohibiting justices from participating in cases in which they have personal or financial interests.
• Formal ethics code: 77% support creation of a formal ethics code for Supreme Court justices that allows for justices to be investigated if they are accused of an ethical violation.
• Mandatory retirement age: 69% support requiring justices to retire by a certain age.
• Term limits: 68% support setting a specific number of years for justices to serve instead of granting them lifetime appointments.
• Public referenda: 47% support allowing the public to vote to overturn Supreme Court decisions on controversial issues.
• Increasing the size of the court: 29% support increasing the number of justices on the current nine-member Supreme Court.

For findings on support for Supreme Court reform by political party and civics knowledge, see the full release.

Constitution Day

APPC releases the Annenberg Civics Knowledge Survey for Constitution Day, which celebrates the signing of the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787. APPC’s initiatives to enhance civics education include Annenberg Classroom, which offers free resources for teaching the Constitution, and the Civics Renewal Network, a coalition of 43 nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving civics education by providing free, high-quality resources for teachers. Among those resources: CRN’s Constitution Day Toolkit for teachers and an Annenberg Classroom series of award-winning videos, including the new “The Eighth Amendment: Cruel and Unusual Punishment.”

The Annenberg Public Policy Center was established in 1993 to educate the public and policy makers about communication’s role in advancing public understanding of political, science, and health issues at the local, state, and federal levels.

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