Apparently, we like what we have under the First Amendment, but we're not entirely at ease with it. And whether we support free speech depends on the subject - say, sexuality - and the medium we choose.
That's what the survey says from Freedom Forum, who plan to talk about those and other suggestions from the survey next month at a San Francisco panel forum.
"Most Americans celebrate the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment," says Freedom Forum's First Amendment ombudsman, Paul McMasters, "(but) they are constantly reevaluating their commitment to First Amendment rights and values and rearranging their priorities."
McMasters says those people ask themselves whether life would be "more civil, more orderly, less threatening, if the excesses of expression were somehow subdued…Americans appreciate, understand and endorse First Amendment principles, but become wary and occasionally even hostile when it comes to the practices."
The survey findings question what McMasters calls the "durability of the First Amendment compact between government and the citizenry." The amendment has represented a resolve "to endure even noxious speech in order to preserve that compact.
