One out of two Americans think right to free speech goes too far: FIRE survey

A recent poll by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) reveals that a majority of Americans believe the First Amendment provides too much protection for certain rights. The poll, part of FIRE's National Speech Index—a quarterly survey assessing public opinion on free speech over time —found that approximately 53 percent of Americans think the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it protects.

“Evidently, one out of every two Americans wishes they had fewer civil liberties,” explained FIRE’s Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens. “Many of them reject the right to assemble, to have a free press, and to petition the government. This is a dictator’s fantasy.”

The poll's results show that 61 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans believe the First Amendment is overly broad in its protections. Additionally, half of Democrats, but only one-fifth of Republicans, believe the country is on the right track regarding free speech.

The survey also revealed that 69 percent of respondents think the country is headed in the wrong direction when it comes to free speech. Despite this, about 65 percent of those surveyed expressed some level of trust in the government's ability to decide what constitutes threatening or indecent speech.

However, when asked about recent protests in the US, 32 percent of respondents said they were "not at all" comfortable with the government limiting the free speech of pro-Hamas protesters.

“Not only do many Americans want to take a machete to the First Amendment, but it’s unclear whether they understand its bounds,” FIRE stated in a press release. The organization noted that a plurality of respondents believed that the pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses last spring should have been allowed, despite these protests including unprotected conduct such as trespassing and vandalism.

“Americans have little tolerance for certain forms of protected speech and a lot of tolerance for unprotected conduct, when it should be the other way around,” Stevens explained. “This poll reveals that the state of free speech in America is dire.”