Views among college students regarding the First Amendment

A crowd of college students at the 2007 Pittsburgh University Commencement. (Photo source: Grads Absorb the News, CC By 2.0)

This from a new survey by John Villasenor for the Brookings Institution:

(The values in the table identify the responses by percent, weighted for gender. Percentages are rounded to two digits, so in some cases the total will not be exactly 100. For more details regarding the survey see the explanation at the end of this article.) 

One of the noteworthy observations from this data is that across all three political affiliations listed in the table, fewer than half of the respondents indicated a belief that hate speech is constitutionally protected. The very significant gender variation in the responses is also noteworthy.

Controversial speakers 

A public university invites a very controversial speaker to an on-campus event. The speaker is known for making offensive and hurtful statements.

The survey included a set of questions considering student views regarding actions aimed at disrupting the speech:

A student group opposed to the speaker disrupts the speech by loudly and repeatedly shouting so that the audience cannot hear the speaker. Do you agree or disagree that the student group’s actions are acceptable?

The responses to the above question show a very distinct variation across political affiliation, with 62 percent of Democrats but “only” 39 percent of Republicans agreeing that it was acceptable to shout down the speaker. More generally, I find the numbers in the above table to be highly concerning, because they show that a very significant fraction of students, across all categories, believe it is acceptable to silence (by shouting) a speaker they find offensive. And, it gets worse:

A student group opposed to the speaker uses violence to prevent the speaker from speaking. Do you agree or disagree that the student group’s actions are acceptable?

These results are notable for several reasons. First, the fraction of students who view the use of violence as acceptable is extremely high. While percentages in the high teens and 20s are “low” relative to what they could be, it’s important to remember that this question is asking about the acceptability of committing violence in order to silence speech. Any number significantly above zero is concerning. The gender difference in the responses is also notable.

Does the First Amendment require presentation of counterpoints?

Consider an event, hosted at a public U.S. university by an on-campus organization, featuring a speaker known for making statements that many students consider to be offensive and hurtful. A student group opposed to the speaker issues a statement saying that, under the First Amendment, the on-campus organization hosting the event is legally required to ensure that the event includes not only the offensive speaker but also a speaker who presents an opposing view. What is your view on the student group’s statement?

Across all of the categories in the table, a majority of students expressed agreement with the assertion that in the scenario presented, compliance with the First Amendment requires offering a counterpoint. This shows an important misunderstanding, since the First Amendment of course involves no such requirement. Many of the respondents appear to be confusing good event design—which under some circumstances can indeed benefit from the presentation of counterpoints—with the completely different issue of what compliance with the First Amendment requires.

There is more, much more, so do check out the survey.