United States - content of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights 2014

This survey, conducted by Harris Poll across the United States in January 2014, shows public opinion in U.S. regarding the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. 84 percent of Americans felt that the freedom to publish is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

Do you feel the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights does or does not guarantee the following?

Characteristic	Guarantees this	Does not guarantee this
The right to freely exercise the religion of one's choosing	86%	14%
The right to assemble peacefully (e.g., organized protests)	85%	15%
Freedom to publish	84%	16%
Freedom to publish opinions	84%	16%
The right to petition branches and agencies of the government for action	80%	20%
The ability to speak freely without fear of government censorship or prosecution	79%	21%
The right to be free from the influence of religion of one so chooses	76%	24%
Separation between government and religious bodies	67%	33%
The ability to speak freely without fear of impact on one's livelihood	67%	33%
Separation between government and religious practices	64%	36%
The ability to speak freely without fear of censorship or prosecution from private companies	62%	38%
The right to donate money, without limit, to politicians as a form of free speech	32%	68%
The barring of religious practices by any individual within a school	31%	69%
The right to make damaging statements about private companies without limitation	30%	70%
The right to make damaging statements about fellow citizens without limitation	26%	74%

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Release date

April 2014

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Region

United States

Survey time period

January 15-20, 2014

Number of respondents

2,236 respondents

Age group

18 years and older

Method of interview

Online survey

Supplementary notes

The source worded the question as follows:
"Please read the following passage from the Bill of Rights. 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging this freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.' Now, for each of the following, please indicate whether you feel the passage does or does not guarantee it."
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding

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