First Amendment survey finds knowledge lacking

Washington Times ^ | 11/21/03 | George Archibald

[kattracks]

More than two-thirds of college students and administrators who participated in a national survey were unable to remember that freedom of religion and the press are guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

In surveys conducted at 339 U.S. colleges and universities, more than one-fourth of students and administrators did not list freedom of speech as an essential right protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution.

[tal hajus]

First Amendment? Isn't that the one with separation of church and state?

[clee1]

Another example of the effects of the public education system. If the sheeple forget what their rights are, they won'tmiss them when they are gone.

[Consort]

Amendment I

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.

The First Amendment prohibits the Federal Government from doing any the above.
The Tenth Amendment gives the states the right to do all of the above.

Yes? No?

[xzins]

•"Forty-nine percent of administrators at private universities and 34 percent of administrators at public universities report that students at their institutions must undergo mandatory non-curricular programs [whose goal] 'is to lead them to value all sexual preferences and to recognize the relativity of these values compared to the values of their upbringing.' "

"Every Value is relative" is a religious teaching, based on nothing more than someone else's opinion of truth.

Every religion must give way to the religion of "Liberal Humanism" and its particular doctrine of 'relativity-based tolerance."

[The_Pickle]

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Those things forbidden to the Federal Government are also, according to the 10th amendment, forbidden to the States.

The powers retained by the States, according to the 10th amendment, are over those things that the Federal Government is not "specifically" granted power over by the Constitution.

[KarlInOhio]

•"Only 36 percent of administrators at private institutions and 50 percent at public institutions reported that their administration took the view that religious individuals should spread their beliefs 'by whatever legal means they choose.' "

•"Only 32 percent of all students surveyed believe that religious people should use any legal means to spread their beliefs."

•Forty-one percent of administrators and 55 percent of students said religious individuals should be careful "not to offend people while spreading their beliefs."

How much of this is belief that government should restrict religion and how much is basic civility?

Can religious people use any legal means to spread their beliefs? Yes. Should they harangue people? Call them whores and whore-mongers for holding hands? Ah, the memories of the preachers on the college quad. I doubt whether they converted one person while trying to spread their beliefs "by whatever legal means they choose."

[nonsporting]

The First Amendment prohibits the Federal Government from doing any the above. The Tenth Amendment gives the states the right to do all of the above. Yes? No?

No. The Bill of Rights does not "give" the States any rights. It simply recognizes those "powers" the State already possesses, as granted to it by its People.

The 10th redundantly asserts that "powers" not explicitely granted to the General Government (and not denied by COTUS) are "reserved" to the States (if its People have granted those powers) or to the People (if they have not).

I say it is "redundant" because Article I, Section 8, itemizes those few areas in which Congress is authorized to legislate. Of course we have a de facto government which does pretty much anything it wants. What a monster.

[Consort]

Then how about:

The First Amendment prohibits the Federal Government from doing any of the above.
The Tenth Amendment allows the states the right to do all of the above.