First Amendment poll:

Females more than males favor limits

My government students were polled in February 2005 concerning their views about First Amendment rights’ issues.

It is worthwhile to recall the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the 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.”

In this issue, we’ll focus on those answers limiting First Amendment rights, rights protected by the Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court. American political science literature shows white male Republicans tend to oppose: burning or defacing the American flag as a political statement, newspapers publishing freely without government control, expression of opinions considered to be anti-American and the First Amendment because it goes too far in guaranteed rights.

First, those who were profiled maintained that “people should not be allowed to burn or deface the American flag as a political statement:” Sixty-eight percent, or 153 out of 226, polled students stated.

• Of those, 54 percent are female and 46 percent male, yet remember, the poll consists of a 50/50 gender split: Our female students seem to have stronger views about flag desecration than our male students.

• Ethnic differences point primarily to Anglos (45 percent), over Hispanics (22 percent) and African-Americans (14 percent), who would deny the burning/desecration of the flag as a political statement. Were one to relate the same numbers to each ethnic group, the outcome is interesting: Seventy-three percent of Hispanic, 72 percent white and 68 percent African-American students would not allow the burning or desecration of the flag as a political statement.

• Republicans with 42 percent, much more than the Democrats (28 percent) and the independents (13 percent), disagreed with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Secondly, the research focused on partisanship. Republicans (35 percent of the polled students) were more opposed to the First Amendment guarantees than Democrats and independents.

• Socio-economically, 71 percent of Anglos, 14 percent of Hispanics and barely one percent of African-Americans make up those students who consider themselves Republicans. Republicans were much more (82 percent) than the Democrats and independents opposed to all the First Amendment issues mentioned above!

• Diversity is much more pronounced among the Democrats: Thirty-one percent of Anglos, 32 percent of African-Americans and 20 percent of Hispanics. Sixty-six percent of Democrats said the flag should not be burned or defaced as a political statement. Unlike the Republicans (37 percent), Democrats believe in a lesser number (15 percent) that newspapers need government approval to publish stories.

• Eleven percent of Republicans to one percent of Democrats believe that “people who express anti-government opinions are anti-American.”

Third, female students want, more than any other target group, to limit as much as possible the First Amendment: Thirty-seven percent are against defacing or burning the flag as a political statement, 14 percent are against newspapers being allowed to publish freely without government approval and four percent believe that people expressing antigovernment opinions are anti-American. They are followed by the Anglos, Hispanics, and the African-Americans who are the least willing to limit the First Amendment.

Most of what was expected occurred. Averaging out all answers, Republicans (29 percent), more than Democrats (19 percent), and Anglos (10 percent) more than Hispanics (4.8 percent) and African-Americans (2.4 percent), believed in limiting the First Amendment guarantees. Contrary to what was expected, females (11.8 percent) and not males (9.6 percent) were more in favor of reducing the First Amendment guarantees.

Overall, there is a correlation between those who are against burning or defacing the flag and those who are against newspapers being allowed to publish freely, against those expressing unpopular opinions, consider those who express anti-government opinions to be anti-American and are against those believing the First Amendment goes too far in guaranteed rights.

To focus on those “students against” is to center on those who have not and do not fully understand the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment as interpreted and expanded by the U.S. Supreme Court in the last two centuries.

It is now up to us educators to clarify these misconceptions and explain what these guaranteed rights are and how they are protected.

— Dr. Gabriel Bach is an NLC government professor